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Has Anyone Seen Pierre Omidyar?

The reclusive and peripatetic billionaire philanthropist appears to be changing gears once again, with plans to seemingly scale back his political and philanthropic work. The fallout could be significant.

Pierre Omidyar, who is primarily holed up in New Zealand, has been signaling that he is planning to scale back his political and philanthropic giving. Photo: James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images
Theodore Schleifer
June 20, 2023

It’s something of an inside joke in philanthropy circles that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, every few years, seems to go through some sort of half-baked pseudo-philosophical reassessment of his priorities and role in the world. He’ll spin out a new organization or two in a restructuring, or decide to go after Mark Zuckerberg and bankroll a Facebook whistleblower, or even just delete his Twitter account—seemingly impulsive decisions usually dressed up in some bullshit-laden, cringeworthy, MBA-strategy gobbledygook about the complex challenges of the world and the systemic changes needed to fix them.