Founders Fund
Peter Thiel's venture firm — backers of SpaceX, Palantir, Stripe
VC
Multi-stage
📍 San Francisco, CA
Founded 2005
AUM
$18B
as of 2026-Q1
MID
Founders Fund was founded in 2005 by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek (the PayPal mafia). It is known for contrarian, founder-friendly checks into hard-tech and frontier-tech companies. Brian Singerman led the firm through its peak SpaceX/Palantir era; Keith Rabois and Trae Stephens are now active partners.
Firm Profile
Active Fund
Founders Fund VIII ($900M) · 2022
Notable Partners
Peter ThielBrian SingermanKeith RaboisTrae StephensNapoleon Ta
Notable Portfolio
spacexpalantirandurilstripeairbnb
Investment Focus
Stages
Seed · Series A · Series B · Growth
Sectors
Defense · Space · Crypto · Bio · Frontier Tech
VCTier-1 VCDefense TechPayPal Mafia
Investor data reflects publicly disclosed AUM, fund sizes, and portfolio holdings as of 2026-Q1. Refreshed periodically.