Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund closes $4.6B venture fund to back growth-stage giants like SpaceX, Stripe, and Anduril

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund just pulled off a monster raise—$4.6 billion to be exact. It’s one of the biggest late-stage venture funds in recent memory, and it couldn’t come at a more uncertain time for private tech companies.

The new fund, Founders Fund Growth III, brings in capital from 270 investors, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Thiel, along with Napoleon Ta and Trae Stephens, is listed as a director. A sizable chunk of the money came from the firm’s general partners, according to someone familiar with the deal who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

Axios first reported in December that the firm was aiming to raise around $3 billion, though prospective investors were never given an official target. A spokesperson for Founders Fund declined to comment.

Most of the capital from Founders Fund’s prior growth fund had already been deployed, and talks about splitting the new vehicle didn’t materialize. Instead, the team opted to raise a single, larger pool—and overshot the $3 billion estimate by more than $1.5 billion, CNBC reported, citing a source who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information.  A spokesperson for Founders Fund declined to comment.

This funding follows the firm’s $3.4 billion raise in 2022 for its second growth equity fund, alongside a $1.8 billion early-stage fund. That earlier fund was later split in half, reflecting what insiders described as fewer early-stage opportunities. The new raise signals a shift back toward larger, later-stage bets—including capital-intensive categories like AI and defense tech.

Thiel’s track record is a draw for investors. After co-founding PayPal, he went on to back Facebook in its earliest days and helped launch Palantir. Since founding Founders Fund in 2005, the firm has bet on a who’s who of breakout companies: Airbnb, Stripe, Affirm, and SpaceX, to name a few.

Anduril, the defense-tech startup founded by Palmer Luckey, is another key portfolio company. As we reported in February, Anduril was in talks to raise $2.5 billion at a $28 billion valuation to expand its next-generation tech products for military agencies and border surveillance.

With the IPO window still largely shut, startups are leaning harder on private capital. Klarna, StubHub, and Chime have all postponed going public as tech stocks continue to face pressure. Trump’s recent tariff announcement sent the Nasdaq tumbling and forced even more companies to rethink their timelines. While he’s now announced a 90-day pause on most new tariffs—except those affecting China—the uncertainty remains.

For companies like SpaceX, Stripe, and Anduril, staying private has become the safer route. Founders Fund’s new war chest gives it the ability to keep funding its winners in follow-on rounds that many other firms are locked out of.

Thiel’s political proximity hasn’t gone unnoticed, either. The firm’s long-standing ties to Trump—along with deep connections to Elon Musk—could give it additional access should Trump return to the White House.

Thiel himself has largely stayed out of the 2024 campaign, at least financially. Speaking in June at the Aspen Ideas Festival, he said: “If you hold a gun to my head, I’ll vote for Trump. I’m not going to give any money to his super PAC.”

Politics aside, the firm’s latest raise makes one thing clear: Founders Fund is still playing at the top of the stack when it comes to big, late-stage tech bets.