Peter Thiel lands in San Francisco as his Founders Fund closes $6B haul

Peter Thiel flew from Los Angeles International Airport to a private airstrip near San Francisco on May 20, a 340-mile hop that took just over an hour and burned roughly 350 gallons of jet fuel. The Gulfstream V, tail number N878DB, touched down at 8:27 a.m. UTC after a routine climb to 36,000 feet.

The trip lands Thiel in the Bay Area the same week Bloomberg reported that his venture firm, Founders Fund, closed a $6 billion growth-stage fund — its largest ever, with $4.5 billion from limited partners and $1.5 billion from partners and employees. The fundraise, first reported on May 1, comes as Thiel also invests in Panthalassa, a startup building wave-powered floating data centers, per The Verge. Thiel has maintained a pattern of shuttling between Los Angeles and San Francisco for business; his aircraft has logged at least six SFO–LAX round trips since September 2025.

Thiel moved his primary residence from San Francisco to Los Angeles in early 2018, but his investment portfolio — Palantir, Founders Fund, and stakes in companies like SpaceX and Anduril — keeps him tethered to the Bay Area. This week’s flight appears to be a straightforward business commute, timed to the closing of a record fund.