Peter Thiel leaving board of Facebook parent Meta

A Silicon Valley billionaire and advisor to former President Donald Trump is leaving the board of directors of Facebook parent company Meta

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire and advisor to former President Donald Trump, is leaving the board of directors of Facebook parent company Meta.

The company said Monday that Thiel will stay on until Meta’s next shareholder meeting later this year, where he will not stand for reelection.

Thiel joined Facebook's board in 2005, a year after the company was founded and seven years before its made its debut on Wall Street. But he has been an increasingly polarizing figure among the company's directors due to his conservative politics.

“Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “He has served on our board for almost two decades, and we’ve always known that at some point he would devote his time to other interests.”