Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund has completed the raise of its third growth fund, according to an SEC filing. Beyond the sum — which is a big step up from its previous $3.4 billion growth fund closed in early 2022 — there’s a couple of other interesting things to note about this raise.
For one, it’s more than the $3 billion growth fund the firm was said to be raising, according to reports in February. Founders Fund is so big and successful that it can always raise an oversubscribed fund should it choose to — there are plenty of LPs who’d want in. In fact, 270 LPs piled in to this fund, according to the filing. A source told CNBC that a substantial amount of the capital also came from the firm’s general partners.
In 2023, while the venture market was in bear mode, Thiel famously chose to trim a new fund’s size, ostensibly because investing had slowed. So, this is another indication that venture investing has moved from bear to bull again.
Beyond that, while so many VCs are chasing all things AI, Founders Fund is also sitting in the sweet spot of another hot market: defense tech. This while it has long tendrils inside the Trump administration. Fund partner and Anduril co-founder Trae Stephens even wrote a manifesto about the “ethics” of backing defense tech startups.
While Founders Fund is a backer of plenty of AI startups, including OpenAI, it holds perhaps the most formidable defense tech portfolio in the Valley, which includes Anduril, SpaceX, Flock Safety, and Biofire among others.
Founders Fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
