Thiel Foundation

The Thiel Foundation (employer identification number 20-3846597) is a private foundation exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, with an Internal Revenue Service ruling date of May 2006. Its first Form 990-PF covers November 22 to December 31, 2005, and reports California as the state in which it is registered. Peter Thiel is the substantial contributor named on every Schedule B or contributor statement opened for the years 2005 through 2023, and he appears as a director or as chairman of the board in every return from the first to the most recent. The Internal Revenue Service's current record for the foundation gives an address at 215 NW 24th Street, Suite 801, Miami, Florida.¹² The returns record grants under four program labels (general foundation grants, Imitatio, Breakout Labs, and a fellowship program that the returns call "20under20" through 2016 and the Thiel Fellowship from 2017), followed in the 2020s by grants to DonorsTrust labelled "donor advised fund" and a single grant to the New Venture Fund.

Incorporation, Early Officers and Addresses

The return for 2005 reports contributions of 25,000 dollars and assets of 25,000 dollars at 555 California Street, Suite 4360, San Francisco. It lists three uncompensated directors: Peter Thiel (two hours a week), Robertson Morrow (director and president) and Jason Portnoy (director, secretary and treasurer), and names Portnoy as the person holding the books. Thiel is listed as the only substantial contributor.² The return for 2006 gives an address of One Letterman Drive, Building C, Suite 400, San Francisco, the same three officers, and a contribution of 317,000 dollars from Thiel.³ The return for 2007 lists the same officers and two contributions from Thiel of 2,080,839 dollars and 685,687 dollars, together 2,766,526 dollars, and reports the sale on November 9, 2007 of eBay stock for a gross price of 688,698 dollars.⁴

In the returns for 2008 and 2009 the Schedule B address for Thiel is One Letterman Drive, Building C, Suite 420.⁵⁶ The same suite is the address given in May 2009 by Founders Fund SpaceX Fund, LP, a vehicle of Founders Fund,, whose Form D lists Luke Nosek, Thiel, Ken Howery and Sean Parker as its directors.⁷ The foundation remained at Suite 400 of the same building until the return for 2018, which gives 9200 West Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1110, West Hollywood. The Schedule B entries for Thiel in the returns for 2018 to 2020 give his address as Suite 320 of the same West Hollywood building. The returns for 2023 and 2024 give 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 3300, Los Angeles.^89101112

The Shire Philanthropic Foundation Name

The first page of the return for 2008 gives the organization's name as Shire Philanthropic Foundation under employer identification number 20-3846597. The statements attached to that return (the expenditure responsibility statement, the list of officers and the schedule of grants paid) and its Schedule B carry the same name. The Form 8868 extension request filed with the return for 2009 is also in the name of Shire Philanthropic Foundation and names Amber Fowler as the person holding the books. The returns for 2005 to 2007 and from 2009 onward are filed as The Thiel Foundation. A search of the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer index for the Shire name returns no separate organization.¹⁵⁶

Officers and Directors

The return for 2008 lists Jonathan Cain as president, Amber Fowler as vice-president, Lindy Fishburne as a director working 40 hours a week for 114,404 dollars plus 10,377 dollars in benefits, and Peter Thiel as a director.⁵ The return for 2009 lists Cain as president, Fowler as secretary, Lynn Fishburne as executive director (198,333 dollars plus 34,399 dollars in benefits), Robert Hamerton-Kelly as chairman (104,999 dollars), James O'Neill as treasurer and Thiel as a director.⁶

The amended return for 2010 lists Thiel as chairman of the board, Cain as president, Fowler as secretary until November 18, 2010, Nate Linn as treasurer and secretary from November 19, 2010, and James O'Neill as "acting CEO/foundation director", paid 143,304 dollars for 20 hours a week. Its list of highest-paid employees names Lynn Fishburne as executive director (150,000 dollars) and Hamerton-Kelly as "Imitatio chair of the board" (118,137 dollars).¹³ The returns for 2011 and 2012 list Cain (president), O'Neill (director and acting chief executive, paid 50,000 dollars in 2011), Linn, Thiel (chairman), Fishburne (executive director) and, for the first time, Ajay Royan as a director.¹⁴¹⁵

The return for 2013 lists Thiel as chairman, Cain as president, Mathew Alexander as treasurer and secretary, and Royan and O'Neill as directors. Lindy Fishburne appears among the employees as senior vice president (340,000 dollars) and Hemai Parthasarathy as scientific director (138,125 dollars).¹⁶ The return for 2014 adds Alana Ackerson as chief executive officer (41,667 dollars); the return for 2015 lists Ackerson as executive director (310,753 dollars), drops Cain and O'Neill, and adds Sonia Arrison as a director.¹⁷¹⁸ The returns for 2016 to 2018 list Thiel, Alexander, Royan and Arrison.⁸¹⁹²⁰

Jason Camm appears as a director and Blake Masters as president (two hours a week) in the returns for 2019 and 2020.⁹¹⁰ The original and amended returns for 2021 list Brian Rowen as president with Thiel, Alexander, Royan, Arrison and Camm; the return for 2022 lists Rowen as president and Masters as a director.²¹²²²³ The return for 2023 lists David Wheelock as president with Thiel, Masters, Camm, Arrison, Royan and Alexander. The return for 2024 lists Thiel as chairman, Wheelock as president, and Masters, Camm and Alexander as directors, and no longer lists Arrison or Royan.¹¹¹² No return opened lists a president for 2018, and none lists Masters as president for 2021 or 2022.

Funding by Peter Thiel

Schedule B lists Thiel as the contributor of 317,000 dollars (2006), 2,766,526 dollars (2007), 3,650,000 dollars (2008), 20,362 dollars (2009), 1,910,000 dollars (2010), 2,050,000 dollars (2011) and 35,106,000 dollars (2012).^3456131415 The return for 2013 lists 15,533,443 dollars from Thiel and corporate stock valued at 15,536,432 dollars at the end of the year.¹⁶ The return for 2014 lists 448,417 dollars from Thiel and 8,700 dollars from the Fox River Foundation of Naperville, Illinois, the only other contributor named in any Schedule B opened.¹⁷ Later Schedule B entries for Thiel are 402,186 dollars (2015), 4,990,625 dollars (2016), 11,982,078 dollars (2017), 2,500,000 dollars (2018), 5,500,000 dollars (2019), 1,090,919 dollars (2020), 2,210,376 dollars and 3,000,000 dollars (2022) and 4,000,000 dollars (2023).^{89101118192023} The return for 2021 reports no contributions, and the return for 2024 reports contributions of zero. The fair market value of the foundation's assets was 31,140,630 dollars at the end of 2013, 44,447,969 dollars at the end of 2023 and 45,244,823 dollars at the end of 2024.¹²¹⁶

Grants, 2006 to 2009

The grants paid in 2006 totalled 275,000 dollars: 50,000 dollars to Africa Fighting Malaria, 75,000 dollars to the Institute on Religion and Public Life of New York for a special project, 25,000 dollars to Yale University and 125,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Palo Alto, also for a special project.³ In 2007 the foundation paid 645,124 dollars: 370,124 dollars to the Methuselah Foundation (a non-matching grant of 167,000 dollars and quarterly matching grants of 203,124 dollars) and 275,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute (25,000 dollars for sponsorship of an artificial intelligence summit and 250,000 dollars in unrestricted grants). The return lists a further 852,907 dollars approved for payment to Methuselah as the remainder of the 2007 matching grants.⁴

The return for 2008 lists 3,036,122.75 dollars in grants. The Methuselah Foundation, at 8021 Flint Street, Springfield, Virginia, received 852,906.94 dollars (the remainder of 2007 matching), 166,790.62 dollars (first and second quarter 2008 matching), 167,000 dollars (a non-challenge donation) and 34,425.19 dollars (third quarter matching). The Federalist Society received 250,000 dollars and the Committee to Protect Journalists 250,000 dollars. Claremont McKenna College received 125,000 dollars as "Support for Leo Strauss Project", and the Hoover Institution 100,000 dollars in general support and 20,000 dollars for its Voegelin Visiting Scholars Fund. The Philanthropy Roundtable received 10,000 dollars, Leadership Public Schools 5,000 dollars, and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund (in care of Joan Roth and Associates, Larkspur, California) 5,000 dollars. A grant of 50,000 dollars went to "WCNC Neurological Surgery" at 525 East 68th Street, New York, for a memorial lectureship whose purpose line also names Eric Braverman.⁵

The return for 2009 lists 979,906 dollars in grants: 250,000 dollars to the Singularity Institute (described as the "2008 Segment of PT Grant Obligation"), 250,000 dollars to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 175,000 dollars to the UCSF Foundation for "Support of FOXO3A Small Molecules", 80,000 dollars to the Cornerstone Forum, 41,179 dollars to Preaching Peace, 34,954 dollars to Methuselah, 48,150 and 17,858 dollars to Carnet Nord of Paris, 26,316 dollars to The King's College, 20,449 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques of Montreuil, 22,000 dollars to the Travis Research Institute of Fuller Theological Seminary, 5,000 dollars to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion and 9,000 dollars to the University of Cambridge for a Darwin conference.⁶

The Institute for Security and Analysis Grant

The return for 2008 records a grant of 1,000,000 dollars, dated May 15, 2008, to the "Institute of Security and Analysis", 100 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 300, Palo Alto, California. It is the only grant in the return reported on an expenditure responsibility statement. The statement gives the purpose as "educate on the role of technology in security and analysis", the amount expended as 1,000,000 dollars, no diversion of funds, a report and verification date of December 31, 2008, and the result "grant was fully expended by grantee for intended purpose".⁵

Palantir Technologies filed a Form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 14, 2009, giving its address as 100 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 300, Palo Alto. The filing names Alexander Karp (executive officer and director), Peter Thiel (director), Joe Lonsdale (executive officer and director), Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings (directors) as related persons, and reports 8,291,250 dollars sold to seven investors of a 20,000,000 dollar offering, with a first sale on March 25, 2009.²⁴

The Institute For Security And Analysis (employer identification number 26-2379447, Palo Alto, Internal Revenue Service ruling date December 2009) filed Forms 990 as a public charity for 2008 to 2012 and Forms 990-PF as a private foundation from 2013. Its returns for 2013 and 2015 list Stephen Cohen as president and director, Joe Lonsdale as secretary, treasurer and director, and Ajay Royan as director, all at 100 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 300, Palo Alto, and report no grants paid. Its returns for 2022 and 2024 list the same three officers at 314 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto, and report grants of 15,000 dollars and 13,000 dollars to Code for America Labs. Its reported total assets were 621,931 dollars at the end of 2011, 616,597 dollars at the end of 2013 and 323,570 dollars at the end of 2023.²⁵ Royan was a director of the Thiel Foundation in 2013, 2015 and 2022. The Thiel Foundation's returns for 2014 and 2015 list an independent contractor named JDB, paid 191,682 dollars and 100,146 dollars for "General Consulting", at 314 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto.¹⁷¹⁸ In September 2021 Royan was named as the person to receive notices for Mithril II LP, care of Mithril Capital Management of Austin, in its Schedule 13D on BlackSky Technology, a satellite imagery company of Herndon, Virginia.²⁶

Life Extension, Artificial Intelligence and Seasteading Grantees

The returns for 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015 list grants to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, renamed the Machine Intelligence Research Institute by the return for 2014: 125,000 dollars (2006), 275,000 dollars (2007), 250,000 dollars (2009), 250,000 dollars (2010), 250,000 dollars (2012), 250,000 dollars (2014) and 250,000 dollars (2015). The return for 2011 lists a 4,000 dollar "grant match for 2010", and the return for 2010 lists 50,000 dollars to Singularity University at the NASA Ames Research Park.^{3461314151718}

The Seasteading Institute received 250,000 dollars and 125,000 dollars in 2010, 500,000 dollars plus a 114,866 dollar "grant match for 2010" in 2011, 675,554 dollars in 2012, 314,521 dollars in 2013 and 216,983 dollars in 2014.^1314151617 The relationship column of the return for 2012 reads "MUTUAL BOARD" against both the Seasteading Institute and the SENS Foundation.¹⁵ The Seasteading Institute's own Form 990 for 2013 lists Patri Friedman as board chair and Jonathan Cain as a board member.²⁷

The SENS Foundation, later the SENS Research Foundation, received four grants in 2010 (413,000 dollars, 412,000 dollars, 202,068 dollars and 375,000 dollars), 340,000 dollars, 200,000 dollars and 50,000 dollars in 2011 with a 3,000 dollar match, 760,000 dollars in 2012, 450,000 dollars in 2013, 600,000 dollars in 2014, 450,000 dollars in 2015 and 1,250,000 dollars in 2016.^{13141516171819} The relationship column of the return for 2013 reads "Jonathan Cain on board", and that of the return for 2014 "Jonathan Cain, executive Director on Board of Directors of SENS Foundat[ion]"; Cain was the Thiel Foundation's president in both years.¹⁶¹⁷

The Methuselah Foundation received 350,000 dollars in 2010 for research support and 100,000 dollars in 2014. The UCSF Foundation received 175,000 dollars a year from 2009 to 2013, described in 2010 as "Cynthia Kenyon support of FOXO3A small molecules project", and the return for 2010 lists 525,000 dollars approved for future payment to it. Leverage Research received 200,000 dollars in 2013 and 400,000 dollars in 2014, and the Foresight Institute 100,000 dollars in each of 2012 and 2013.^13151617

Think Tanks, Press Freedom and Political Philosophy Grantees

The Committee to Protect Journalists received 250,000 dollars in each of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and 75,000 dollars in 2013. The Human Rights Foundation of New York received 175,000 dollars in 2010, 250,000 dollars in 2011 with Oslo given in the purpose line, 500,000 dollars in 2012 and 200,000 dollars in 2014.^561314151617 The American Foundation for Equal Rights of Los Angeles received 100,000 dollars in general support in 2010.¹³

The Ayn Rand Institute received 100,000 dollars in each of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and the return for 2011 shows a further 400,000 dollars approved for future payment. The Hudson Institute received 100,000 dollars in 2011 and 2014; the Acton Institute 50,000 dollars in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017; the Hoover Institution 100,000 dollars in 2011 (paid to Stanford University as a "TF grant") and 100,000 dollars in 2012; Students for Liberty 100,000 dollars in 2012; the Independent Institute 50,000 dollars in 2010; and the Mercatus Center 35,000 dollars for an academic seminar in 2017, 250,000 dollars in 2019 and 250,000 dollars in 2021.^{91314151617182021} Stanford also received 35,000 dollars in 2010 for "research support on empathy in neuroscience" and 110,000 dollars in 2011 "in support of the Stanford Law Center".¹³¹⁴

Claremont McKenna College received 125,000 dollars in 2008 for the Leo Strauss Project, 125,000 dollars in 2010, 125,000 dollars in 2011 for its "Leo Strauss Center", 200,000 dollars in 2012 and 200,000 dollars in 2013 for its Salvatori Center. The University of Chicago received 50,000 dollars in 2010 and 50,000 dollars in 2011, the latter "in support of the Leo Strauss Center", and the returns for those years show 150,000 dollars and 100,000 dollars approved for future payment to it for the Leo Strauss Center. The Leo Strauss Foundation received 100,000 dollars in 2022 (Upland, California) and 100,000 dollars in 2023 (Chicago).^{5111314151623}

American Friends of Bilderberg

The returns for 2013, 2014 and 2015 each list 25,000 dollars to American Friends of Bilderberg, Washington, D.C. (spelled "Ameican Friends of Bildeberg" in the return for 2014).¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸ The Forms 990-PF of American Friends of Bilderberg (employer identification number 51-0163715, 607 14th Street NW, Washington) for the same three years list Peter Thiel as one of its directors, with Marie-Josée Kravis as president, James A. Johnson as treasurer, Jessica T. Mathews as secretary, and Henry Kissinger, Craig Mundie, Richard Perle, Roger Altman and Klaus Kleinfeld as directors. They describe its activity as follows: "The entity organizes and sponsors conferences which study & discuss significant problems of the Western Alliance. It also collaborates on the Bilderberg Meetings held in Europe & North America." It reported contributions of 241,000 dollars for 2014 and 159,000 dollars for 2015.²⁸

The return for 2013 also lists 100,000 dollars each to the United States New Zealand Council, the Randolph Bourne Institute and Peers Benefit Corporation.¹⁶

Imitatio

The Imitatio label first appears in the returns for 2010 and 2011, alongside the payment to Hamerton-Kelly as "Imitatio chair of the board" and grants to the Association Recherches Mimétiques, the Cornerstone Forum, Preaching Peace, the Raven Foundation, Theology and Peace and individual scholars. The return for 2010 reports expenditure responsibility statements for 46,000 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques for "support of education & publication efforts" and 40,000 dollars to the Raven Foundation of Glenview, Illinois, and the return for 2011 lists a 50,000 dollar Imitatio publishing grant to the foreign publisher É Realizações Editora.¹³¹⁴ Imitatio-labelled grants were 672,000 dollars in 2013, 728,983 dollars in 2014, 613,325 dollars in 2015, 609,000 dollars in 2016 and 548,395 dollars in 2017.^1617181920

The return for 2014 lists 152,983 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques of Montreuil, France, and individual Imitatio grants of 95,000 dollars to James Alison, 80,000 dollars to Benoît Chantre, 55,000 dollars to Mark Anspach of Bologna, 40,000 dollars to Jean-Pierre Dupuy of Paris and 40,000 dollars to William Johnsen of East Grand Rapids, Michigan; the return for 2013 also lists Alison as a consultant paid 98,035 dollars.¹⁶¹⁷ The returns for 2020 to 2024 list yearly payments of 80,000 dollars to the Association Recherches Mimétiques, 80,000 dollars to Chantre and 65,000 dollars to Anspach, 95,000 dollars to Alison in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024, and 65,000 dollars to the Cornerstone Forum in each of 2019 to 2023. Glass Darkly Films received 60,000 dollars in 2021 and Imitatio grants of 45,000 dollars (2022), 80,000 dollars (2023) and 53,313 dollars (2024), the last two reported on expenditure responsibility statements.^91011122123

Thiel Fellowship and Breakout Labs

Fellowship grants are labelled "20under20 fellowship" in the returns for 2012 to 2016, "Thiel Fellowship Grant" in the returns for 2017 and 2018, and "fellowship" in later returns. Fellowship totals were 2,093,046 dollars in 2013, 2,025,438 dollars in 2014, 2,369,206 dollars in 2015, 2,637,858 dollars in 2016, 2,224,071 dollars in 2017, 2,054,946 dollars in 2018, 1,650,000 dollars in 2021, 2,193,650 dollars in 2022 and 2,187,500 dollars in 2023. The returns for 2013 to 2016 list Dylan Field, Delian Asparouhov and Vitalik Buterin among the 20under20 grantees.^{81116171819202123} The amended return for 2021 reports fellowship grants of 100,000 dollars each on expenditure responsibility statements, and its schedule of other income includes 1,360,000 dollars labelled "grant conversion".²² The return for 2012 lists a grant of 200,000 dollars to David Allen Dalrymple under the general program.¹⁵ The returns for 2012 to 2014 list Danielle Strachman as a contractor for management of the 20under20 program, paid 275,163 dollars (2012), 250,845 dollars (2013) and 174,363 dollars (2014).¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷

Breakout Labs grants first appear in the return for 2011 (Arigos Biomedical, 50,000 dollars). The return for 2012 lists 3Scan (340,000 dollars), Arigos Biomedical (300,000 dollars), Avetech Energy (300,000 dollars), General Genomics (350,000 dollars), Immusoft (398,607 dollars), Siva Therapeutics (350,025 dollars) and Longevity Biotech (346,726 dollars).¹⁴¹⁵ Breakout Labs totals were 1,113,513 dollars in 2013, 1,616,000 dollars in 2014 (including 350,000 dollars to Cortexyme), 1,970,000 dollars in 2015, 1,315,000 dollars in 2016, 3,775,000 dollars in 2017 and 1,775,000 dollars in 2018, and the return for 2019 lists six grants of 500,000 dollars each.^891617181920 The amended return for 2021 lists a holding in Cortexyme valued at 193,149 dollars and investments in unconsolidated entities valued at 18,477,914 dollars.²²

Donor-Advised Fund and Other 2020s Grants

Entries for the San Francisco Foundation and the San Francisco Community Foundation appear in the returns for 2014 (697,400 dollars), 2016 (501,500 dollars, labelled "Ainur Fund Grant"), 2017 (790,000 dollars, Ainur Fund), 2018 (240,000 dollars, Ainur Fund), 2019 (400,000 dollars to the "SF Community Foundation Ainur Fund") and 2020 (325,000 dollars).^8910171920

The return for 2020 lists two grants to Donors Trust Inc., given an address at 4 Whitney Court, Menlo Park, California, and labelled "donor advised fund": 4,345,224 dollars and 43,891 dollars.¹⁰ The return for 2021 lists 4,250,000 dollars to DonorsTrust with the same label, 3,000,000 dollars to the New Venture Fund of Washington, D.C., labelled "grants", and 250,000 dollars to the Mercatus Center. The return for 2022 lists 1,370,000 dollars to DonorsTrust, and the returns for 2023 and 2024 list 1,276,111 dollars and 426,775 dollars to DonorsTrust of Alexandria, Virginia, labelled "general foundation grant". The DonorsTrust entries for 2020 to 2024 total 11,712,001 dollars.^1011122123

The return for 2021 exists in an original version submitted November 15, 2022 and an amended version submitted November 21, 2023. Both report grants paid of 12,150,000 dollars on the books and 9,803,000 dollars in charitable disbursements. The amended version reports total revenue of 5,783,988 dollars against 8,783,988 dollars in the original, a difference of 3,000,000 dollars in other income. Its general explanation attachment states that other income and investments "have been updated to properly reflect a return of capital transaction that was previously reported as investment income."²¹²²

The return for 2022 lists "general foundation grants" of 100,000, 120,000 and 125,000 dollars to three individuals, and the return for 2023 repeats the 120,000 dollar grant to one of them.¹¹²³ The Newbigin House of Studies in San Francisco received 500,000 dollars in 2014 and 350,000 dollars in 2015. Helen Whitney Productions received 350,000 dollars in each of 2014 and 2015, 700,000 dollars in 2016 and 100,000 dollars in 2017, the last described as support for a documentary film. The return for 2012 lists 145,000 dollars to Pennsylvania State University.^1517181920 The return for 2014 lists Torch Communications, a media consultant, as its highest-paid contractor at 381,330 dollars.¹⁷