The Founders Fund have incubated or co-incubated Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries, General Matter, Valinor, Varda Space Industries, which are all defense company; only Sol is a non-military company.
John Mac Ghlionn of the Boston Globe describes "Small Tech", which he defines as "a cluster of small Silicon Valley firms" that represents the "AI-driven military-industrial complex" with Palantir as "its public face", writing that, "The deeper roster runs through Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic, Scale AI, Vannevar Labs, Skydio, Epirus, and a dozen more startups bankrolled by the venture capital firm Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and Peter Thiel's wider network." Palantir itself is a relatively small company, with a small number of employees (around 4,000, which has barely increased through the years). The Economist notes that Palantir, Anduril, and SpaceX, sometimes dubbed "neo-primes", generally dislike "cost-plus" contracts where the government covers all expenses and adds profit, because that model, while necessary for large, complex programs with unpredictable initial costs, breeds laziness. Instead, the new defense leaders often prefer fixed-price deals in which they cover the initial cost of research and development and earn fat margins if they deliver on time and within budget: "The contract structure helps to keep them lean, and gives them an incentive to upgrade their products frequently, rather than building new weapons or systems from scratch each time."
Thiel combines the investments of different funds that he founds or invests in for activities in the defense sector. Intelligence Online notes that since the 2010s, he has gradually cornered the private satellite imagery market through multiple investments by his different funds (Y Combinator, Founders Fund, Mithril), then sold this essential service to governments in the U.S. and other countries as part of a global strategy. Via Mithril Capital, he invested in Spaceflight Industries (from which BlackSky was spun out) and helped it to acquire OpenWhere, which developed software to merging imagery data with data from other sources. Via Founders Fund, he invested in Planet Labs, which has acquired Alphabet's Terra Bella. Meanwhile, Palantir and Vicarious (backed by the Founders Fund) develop image and data processing technology, while Y Combinator, where Thiel once served as partner, supported Armada and Aptonomy, which developed totally automated observation drones.
Los Angeles Times notes that, to exert his control and influence over Palantir, he combines a multi-class share structure with equities held in the Founders Fund as well as other funds he invests in (some are indirect investments, like those made through 8VC and Disruptive Technology Solutions).
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Other than the defense company that Founders Fund incubates and SpaceX, it makes investments in other notable companies or projects that have strategical value for defense, security or government affairs, including:
Impulse Space: After leaving SpaceX, engineer Tom Mueller founded the in-space transport startup following the advice of Peter Thiel. Founders Fund led its $150 million funding round in 2024. The fund also participated in the Series C (June 2025).
Planet Labs: a space and analytics startup formerly known as Cosmogia. Founders Fund joined their Series B, C, D.
Senra Systems: startup that makes wire harnesses for "sensors, avionics, communications systems and control surfaces", "aiming to accelerate American manufacturing of drones, rockets and more". The Founders Fund joined its Series A.
Climate Corp: agrotech company that relies on space-based data. Brian Singerman was on the board. In 2013, it got acquired by Monsanto.
Moon Express: Tokyo-based moon mining startup. The Founders Fund invested in its Series B (2017).
Planetary Resources (defunct and acquired by Consensys in 2018): space mining startup. Matthew Johnson links the investment to Thiel's Hayekian economic thinking (Thiel was given the Hayek Lifetime Achievement award by the F.A. v Hayek Institut and the Austrian Economics Center in 2015).
Northwood Space: startup that emerged from stealth mode in February 2024 and designs "satellite ground systems that receive data from satellites." Founders Fund is an early backer.
Accion Systems: space propulsion startup that develops modular thrusters like the IRVINE01 and IRVINE02 thruster systems.
Hextronics: dual-use drone automation hardware company. The Founders Fund led the seed round in 2024.
Nominal: startup that develops "end-to-end data analysis solutions for industrial engineering teams" in manufacturing spacecraft, drones, satellites, and nuclear reactors. Founders Fund is an early backer.
Niantic, Inc.: augmented reality software company, which has a partnership with BlackSky (Blacksky is a satellite company backed by Mithril Capital.). The Founders Fund joined its 2017 Series B and 2019 Series C. Previously, Scott and Cyan Banister had joined its Series A.
Neros: military drone startup which is founded by Thiel Fellow Soren Monroe-Anderson. The company's supply chain eliminates Chinese components, resulting in it becoming "one of just two U.S. FPV drone makers approved by the Defense Innovation Unit" and being sanctioned by Beijing. It is backed by the Founders Fund and Thiel Capital. It allies with the German drone company Quantum-Systems (backed by Thiel through Thiel Capital), which makes the carrier drone Radiant, which can launch Neros's Archer.
Hermeus: supersonic airliner startup. In 2019, the Founders Fund joined its $100 million Series B.
Akash Systems: startup producing satellite parts like diamond-cooled servers or radios. Delian Asparouhov invested in the company since his time at Khosla Ventures.
EnduroSat: Bulgarian startup that manufactures Gen-3 satellites at scale, which also incorporates Magdrive technology The Founders Fund led a €43 million investment in May 2025.
Magdrive: UK-based startup focused on spacecraft propulsion. The Founders Fund led the pre-seed round and participated in the 2025 seed round.
Shield AI: startup that works on autonomy for hardware and software. Palantir is a backer and strategic partner of the company.
Ayar Labs: optical I/O data company that produces chiplets for the DoD. The Founders Fund (FF Science) led the seed round and participated in Series A, Series B, Series C.
PsiQuantum: Photonic quantum startup that works with Australian and U.S. defense agencies. The Founders Fund led the Series B (2017) and participated in 2019 and 2020 funding rounds.
Rigetti Computing: superconducting quantum startup that works with Air Force Research Laboratory. The Founders Fund led the 2020 funding round.
Zapata AI: early quantum AI specialist (now ceased operation), veteran-owned "Non-Traditional Defense Contractor" (NTDS). The Founders Fund (FF Science) participated in its seed round in 2018.
Valthos: biodefense company that emerged from stealth in October 2025, with backing from Lux Capital, OpenAi and the Founders Fund. Co-founders are Kathleen McMahon (CEO), who served a long time as leader of Palantir's life sciences division, and Lux Capital partner Tess van Stekelenburg. Delian Asparouhov notes that before 2025, creating biotech-based weapons was "only murmurs", but now technological advances have made it a real possibility. The team comes from Palantir, DeepMind, the Broad Institute and the Arc Institute. Vox sees the startup and its alliance with OpenAI as the beginning of AI-bio defense capabilities.
Biosphere: a clean energy startup that develops UV-sterilized bioreactors and is working with the U.S. Department of Defense in benchtop production. The Founders Fund participated in the seed round.
Bolt Threads: startup that makes dual-use synthetic spider silk. The Founders Fund joined Series B, C, D. It went public through merging with a SPAC in 2024.
Sana Health: startup that develops a device to treat PTSD, adjustment disorder or pain and sleep problems. It is supported by the DoD. The Founders Fund participated in the seed round and led another funding round in 2020.
Earable: Vietnamese-American sleeptech company, that won the 2023 CES Innovation Award and targets the defense sector. The Founders Fund led the seed round.
Solugen: chemical startup "developing modular, scalable infrastructure to produce dual-use precursors for next-generation energetic materials." Solugen serves critical materials, defense, and energy. The Founders Fund led its Series A, Series B. Founders Fund partner Sean Liu was its CFO (before joining the Founders Fund), now remains strategic advisor.
Transatomic Power: a startup that developed a molten salt reactor, before closing down in 2018.
Radiant Industries: startup that made nuclear microreactors. Founders Fund joined its Series B, C.
Avalanche Energy: fusion company that builds mini reactors, which have application in defense. The Founders Fund co-led its Series A in 2023.
Voya: dual-use climate tech company, that develops a method to turn metal into energy. The Founders Fund participated in its 2025 seed round. The IQT (formerly In-Q-Tel) also invested.
Crusoe (Crusoe Energy Systems): startup that builds computing and AI infrastructure (like modular datacenters) utilizing clean (mainly renewable) energy. The company is a close partner of OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, as a member of the Stargate project. Founders Fund led its $600 million Series D in December 2024.
Modumetal: dual-use startup that "grows" high performance metal in an energy-efficient and cheap way. The Founders Fund led the $33.5 million round in 2015.
Biofire: startup that develops a smart gun, using biometric data to prevent children from using guns. The Founders Fund led the Series A, but few investors participated, so the Series A was extended in 2024, again with participation from the Founders Fund.
Gecko Robotics: a startup "which uses robots and AI to help organizations including the U.S. military inspect and monitor critical infrastructure". It became a unicorn in June 2025. The Founders Fund supported it since its Series A, joined its Series B, C, D. Trae Stephens joined the board after Series C.
Cobalt Robotics (later Cobalt AI): company that produces indoor security robots which serves the defense, manufacturing and finance sectors. The robots were deployed by the Australian government during the Covid pandemic. The Founders Fund joined the Series A, Later the company got acquired by Dean Drako.
goTenna: startup that works on dual use technology like mesh networking over radio frequencies, that can be used for the military or rescue. The Founders Fund led its series C in 2019.
Advanced Manufacturing Company of America (Amca): aerospace and defense company, that acts as a layer between startups and legacy players. It acquires old defense companies that make power units, sensors and flight-control computers to rebuild the supply chain for companies like Boeing and Airbus. The company launched in April 2025 with $76.5 million in initial funding. Backers include Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz.
Hadrian Automation: defense manufacturing company, which has a close connection with Anduril. The Founders Fund has invested in the company since its seed round. In July 2025, the Founders Fund co-led the $260 million Series C with Lux Capital.
Layup Parts: composites manufacturing company, built by three The Boring Company alumni, originally built to support Anduril but now serving many companies in defense, aerospace and automotive industries. The Founders Fund led a funding round for it in May 2024 and participated in funding in 2026.
Plethora: CNC manufacturing startup that turns 3D designs into custom parts (providing both software and hardware), serving customers in aerospace and defense. The Founders Fund has supported the company since the seed round (2013). Scott Nolan led the investment and is on the board.
Armada AI: startup that makes moveable AI datacenters for manufacturing and defense. The Founders Fund has been backing the company since the beginning, In December 2023 when the startup emerged from stealth mode, the Founders Fund led its $55 million funding round. The fund backed it again in its $40 million fundraising round in 2024 and its $131 million round in 2025. Dan Wright, the CEO, said that, "The company itself came out of a number of discussions between myself, my co-founder Jon Runyan, and many of our investors and partners, like Founders Fund and 137 Ventures, as we looked for a company to build that would have a material, positive impact on the world."
Dirac: defense manufacturing AI startup that helps to build jet engines and submarines. The seed round led by the Founders Fund and Coatue was announced together with a partnership with Siemens. It also has a partnership with Hadrian.
Scale AI: data annotation startup, which allies closely with Palantir and Anduril as a new industrial player in the defense sector. Co-founder Lucy Guo is a Thiel Fellow. The startup became an unicorn after Founders Fund led the series C in 2019.
OpenAI: Thiel was one of the first donors to the then non-profit OpenAI. The Founders Fund is a longtime backer. Recently, the Founders Fund joined the $8.3 billion funding round in August 2025. OpenAI is also a close ally of Palantir, Anduril and Valinor, which are challenging the traditional military incumbents.
Anthropic: Founders Fund co-led its Series G.
Databricks: In December 2024, the Founders Fund participated in its $10 billion funding round, investing "low hundreds of millions of dollars". Palantir and Databricks has a partnership, that merges Palantir's Ontology System with Databricks' data processing capabilities, serving entities such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, and energy firm bp.
Rescale: HPC cloud computing startup that works with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). It is known that Thiel is an early investor, who also invested in its Series D. Some sources report that the Founders Fund invested in the 2015 round.
Lagrange Labs: blockchain cryptography startup (that has a partnership with Anduril). The Founders Fund led its seed funding round.
Qadium (later renamed Expanse): cybersecurity that worked with the Department of Defense; co-founded by Shaun Maguire (Sequoia), Tim Junio (who previously served at the CIA and under the secretary of defense) and Matt Kraning (former DARPA employee). The Founders Fund and Peter Thiel personally led the $6 million seed round in 2015, then the Founders Fund joined Series A, B, C.
CapLinked: project management software company founded by former PayPal's vice president Eric Jackson, which also works in cybersecurity with Google and other defense and government contractors. The Founders Fund (FF Angel) joined Series A,
Galvanick: cybersecurity company that works with the government in defense sector. The company has defense-focused partnerships with Oracle. The Founders Fund participated in the seed round.
Vicarious Systems: startup that worked on general intelligence for robots, now has been acquired by Alphabet. The Founders Fund was one of its earliest backers.
Other hardware
Freeform: metal 3d printing startup. The Founders Fund backed it in 2023.
Zinier: field service automation platform startup. Founders Fund invested in the company in 2019 and 2020.
The Boring Company: The Founders Fund joined its $675 million Series C in 2022.
Tibber: Norwegian digital clean energy startup that is also active in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The Founders Fund led its Series A, co-led its Series B with Accel and participated in Series C.
Stenon: Potsdam-based portable soil sensing agrotechnology startup. The Founders Fund funded its Series A.
Oculus: augmented reality hardware and software startup founded by Palmer Luckey, later acquired by Meta.
Zellerfeld: Hamburg- and New York-based startup that produces 3d-printed shoes. The Founders Fund led its seed round (2023).
Flock Safety: Surveillance hardware company that works with local law enforcement.
The Ocean Cleanup: Dutch NGO that develops systems to remove plastic pollution from the oceans, developed by Thiel Fellow Boyan Slat and Charles-Eric Gascon.
Fintech, insurance, trade, marketing, consumer tech and cryptocurrency
Affirm: founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin: Founders Fund did not invest until 2016, but led its $US100 million Series D and participated in the $500 million Series G and the $200 million Series E.
Nubank: Brazilian banking startup. The Founders Fund led the Series C (this was also its first foray into Brazilian investment scene, even though Thiel's other funds had made investments in Brazil before) and participated in Series D.
Polymarket: cryptocurrency-based prediction market startup. The startup became an unicorn in June 2025 after Founders Fund led a $200 million funding round.
Ramp: a fintech company founded in 2019. The Founders Fund has led five rounds of investment, which helps the company to reach a value of $16 billion. The company attracted controversies in 2025 due to its political connections, when the General Services Administration considered it for the government's SmartPay program.
Long-Term Stock Exchange: The Founders Fund led its Series B.
Zenreach (formerly Adentro): The Founders Fund led its Series B and participated in Series C. Peter Thiel joined its board after Series B.
Oscar Health: health insurance company founded by Joshua Kushner, Mario Schlosser and Kevin Nazemi. The Founders Fund participated in its Series A. In 2015, when it attracted $145 million, the Wall Street Journal reported that, "Return investors Peter Thiel and Brian Singerman of Founders Fund led the round."
Airbnb: hospitality startup, in which the Founders Fund first invested in 2013 (Series C). Mithril Capital locked the deal down first, but they boasted about the deal early with investors. Rumours reached the Founders Fund, which already disliked Mithril for being too close to their Presidio campus. The Founders Fund claimed that because Thiel was already a backer, it would be more natural for the Founders Fund to get the deal. The Founders Fund ultimately prevailed, while Thiel arranged for Mithril to invest in Palantir as compensation.
Spotify: The Founders Fund first invested in the startup in 2010 (as a lead investor; Series C). Sean Parker joined its board in that year and has remained a board member until this day. The Founders Fund continued to invested in 2015.
Credit Karma: multinational personal finance company. The Founders Fund invested in its Series A in 2009,
Trade Republic: Berlin-based fintech and banking startup. The Founders Fund co-led Series B with Accel, participated in Series B extension and Series C. In 2021, the Handelsblatt notes that while Thiel invested extensively in German fintech startups (at this time his German investments consisted mostly of fintech and software) through different funds (but mostly Thiel Capital and Valar), he did not advise them equally. While the Berlin-based banking startup Moss's founders only saw from Valar Ventures's James Fitzgerald, Thiel paid special attention to Trade Republic.
Brave Software: Creators of the Brave Browser, an open-source ad-blocking browser based on Firefox
Database and social networking
ResearchGate: The Founders Fund is an early investor in the Berlin-based science database and networking site. Virologist Ijad Madisch, the founder, recounts that, in 2012, Thiel arrived late, asked three questions, and then stood up, saying: "I want to invest in this guy no matter what the cost."
The Org: Database startup that builds organizational charts. The Founders Fund participated Series A (2000; as lead according to TechCrunch and tech.eu, as non-lead investor according to Business Insider), Series B (2021).
Games and graphics
In 2019, Cyan Banister commented on the reason she and the Founders Fund continued to invest in game companies: "In 2018 I was obsessed with the idea of how you can bring AI and entertainment together [...] I also became obsessed with live and interactive mobile-first entertainment, making investments in HQ Trivia, Drivetime, Bunch and Glamcam. When anyone says that consumer is over, I disagree. I believe we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift of how consumers behave and it's the beginning of new social fabric and design that pushes devices in ways never before thought imaginable."
Wonder Dynamics: VFX and computer graphics software startup. The Founders Fund led the seed round (2021; Cyan Banister also participated personally), participated in Series A (2023).
Portalarium (now defunct): game company. The Founders Fund (FF Angel) co-led the seed round with m8 (2011), participated in Series A (2012).
Mobalytics: Ukrainian gaming analytics startup. The Founders Fund participated in the seed round.
Bonfire Studios: video game development studio. The Founders Fund invested in the company in early 2025.
Cloud9: esports company. The Founders Fund invested in the 2017 Series A. David Sacks also participated. Brian Singerman had invested earlier in the seed round.
Jam City: video game developer. The Founders Fund co-led its Series A with Greylock Partners, when its name was Social Gaming Network.
Bunch Games: The Founders Fund participated in the seed round in 2018.
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