Founders Fund Portfolio: AI Startups Backed by Peter Thiel’s Firm (2025 Tracker)
Founders Fund’s AI playbook at a glance. See the startups that Peter Thiel–backed firm has funded, from Anthropic and Scale AI to emerging bets like Netic AI.
Founded by Peter Thiel, Brian Singerman, and other PayPal Mafia alums, Founders Fund has a reputation for swinging early and swinging big on frontier tech (SpaceX, Palantir, Facebook).
In the GenAI era, they’re leaning hard into:
- Defense & dual-use AI – aligning with the firm’s “competing with nation-states” thesis.
- Compute & chip efficiency – anything that breaks the GPU bottleneck.
- Agentic software that replaces, not just augments, knowledge work.
Below is a live tracker of the AI-first companies they’ve funded in the last 18 months.
💸 Founders Fund AI Portfolio (Live Tracker)
| Company | Sector | Latest Round | $$ Raised | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Foundation models | Series C | $450 M | 2023 | FF joined Google & Spark in the round |
| Anduril | Autonomous defense systems | Series E | $1.48 B | 2022 | FF invested at seed and every follow-on |
| Scale AI | Data-labeling & RAG infra | Series F | $325 M | 2024 | Early backer (Series B) — re-upped in later rounds |
| Netic AI | Cybersecurity / SOC automation | Seed | $10 M | 2025 | Seed led by Founders Fund + Lightspeed |
| Rescale | Cloud HPC for AI | Series C | $105 M | 2023 | FF participated alongside Insight & a16z |
| Vercel | AI-powered DX tooling | Series D | $150 M | 2024 | FF joined Tiger Global to back Next.js + v0 AI |
| Palantir | AI-driven data platforms | Public (NYSE: PLTR) | – | IPO 2019 | FF’s OG bet — cornerstone of its AI thesis |
| Neuralink | Brain–machine interface | Series C | $280 M | 2023 | AI-adjacent; FF is a long-time participant |
(All dollar figures = total capital raised in the most recent round.)
*Estimate based on public filings & press; Anthropic’s 2025 mega-round has not formally closed.
Know a startup we missed? Email us to get it added.
Top Founders Fund–Backed AI Companies (2025)
1. Anduril
- Round: $2.5B Series G (2025), FF led with ~$1B
- Sector: Defense Autonomy – Dual-use AI Systems
- What They Do: Builds AI-driven autonomous defense platforms (air, sea, land) powered by Lattice OS.
- Why It Matters: Largest check in Founders Fund history; underscores their “competing with nation-states” thesis and positions Anduril as the prime defense AI contractor.
2. Hadrian
- Round: $260M Series C (2025), co-led by FF & Lux
- Sector: AI Factories – Advanced Manufacturing for Defense/Aerospace
- What They Do: Runs automated “factories-as-a-service” that use AI + robotics to rapidly produce aerospace and defense components.
- Why It Matters: Reinforces U.S. industrial base resilience; aligns with FF’s bet on hard-tech autonomy at scale.
3. Netic AI
- Round: $20M Series A (2025), participants include FF
- Sector: Agentic Software – Revenue Operations
- What They Do: Deploys autonomous AI agents that book jobs, handle scheduling, and close deals for essential services providers.
- Why It Matters: Pushes the shift from assistive to fully agentic AI—software that executes, not just suggests.
4. Varda Space Industries
- Round: $187M Series C (2025), FF participated
- Sector: Space + AI-Enabled Biomanufacturing
- What They Do: Uses microgravity to manufacture pharmaceuticals in orbit, with AI-assisted crystallization and materials science.
- Why It Matters: Expands FF’s dual-use strategy into space; blends biotech, pharma, and aerospace for frontier markets.
5. Scale AI
- Round: $1B Series F (2024), FF participated
- Sector: AI Infrastructure – Data Labeling & RAG
- What They Do: Provides the data pipelines, eval, and reinforcement frameworks that power training and deployment of frontier AI models.
- Why It Matters: The “data foundry” of the AI era—critical infrastructure layer that underpins every agent and LLM.
6. Neuralink
- Round: $600M raise (2025, reported); $280M Series D (2023) led by FF
- Sector: Neuro-AI / Brain–Computer Interfaces
- What They Do: Develops brain implants enabling direct interaction between humans and AI systems.
- Why It Matters: A long-horizon bet consistent with FF’s frontier ethos; potential to redefine human–AI symbiosis.
7. Anthropic
- Round: $13B Series F (2025), valuation $183B post-money
- Sector: Foundation Models – Frontier AI
- What They Do: Developer of Claude AI; builds frontier-scale LLMs with Constitutional AI framework.
- Why It Matters: One of the “Big Three” foundation model labs; Founders Fund’s early participation shows alignment with its strategy to back AI platforms competing at nation-state scale.
Why Founders Fund makes these bets
| Strategic Angle | How a Founders Fund check helps |
|---|---|
| Demand driver for new compute | Chips & defense autonomy push the limits of current GPUs → future Groq/Rain/L4 stack. |
| Regulation-proof domains | Defense & critical infra have high moats and fewer consumer-privacy headwinds. |
| “Zero-to-one” culture fit | FF likes contrarian founders tackling hard tech; frontier-model labs & hardware start-ups match that DNA. |
Related Trackers
- NVentures (Nvidia) AI Portfolio
- a16z AI Portfolio: Startups Backed by Andreessen Horowitz
- Thrive Capital Portfolio: AI Startups Backed by Thrive
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