Global e-commerce company PayPal's co-founder Peter Thiel has said internet search giant Google has run out of ideas and doesn't know how to spend its money. 

"Google also has 50 billion dollars in cash," Thiel said during a technology conference also attended by Google chairman Eric Schmidt. 

"It has no idea how to invest that money in technology effectively ... if we're living in an accelerating technological world, and you have zero per cent interest rates, you should be able to invest all of your money in things that will return it many times over. The fact is you're out of ideas," he added. 

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Schmidt countered that the company had no deficit of business models, but instead suffered from real-world constraints. 

"What you discover in running these companies is that there are limits that are not cash. There are limits of recruiting, limits of real estate, regulatory limits," he said. 

Thiel shot back saying, 'Google is just a search engine, and no longer a technology company'. 

"Then the intellectually honest thing to do would be to say that Google is no longer a technology company," the paper quoted Thiel, as saying. 

"It's basically a search engine developed a decade ago. That's why all these companies are building up hordes of cash, because they don't know what to do with it, but they don't want to admit they're no longer tech companies," he added.