Trae Stephens

Trae Stephens (born November 1983) is an American venture capitalist and technology entrepreneur. He is a co-founder and the executive chairman of Anduril Industries, a defense technology company, and a partner at Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund. Stephens was an early employee at Palantir Technologies and has been noted for his work at the intersection of technology and national security.

Early life

Trae Stephens grew up in Ohio. He was a senior in high school at the time of the September 11 attacks, an event which inspired him to pursue a career in national security. Stephens attended Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he focused on Arabic and Security Studies and earned a degree in Regional and Comparative Studies (Middle East) in 2005. During his college years, he gained early experience in government and international affairs. He interned in the office of Congressman Rob Portman and at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C., shortly after the establishment of Hamid Karzai’s post-Taliban transitional government.

Career

After graduating from Georgetown, Stephens began his career as a computational linguist working within the US Intelligence Community. In this role, he built enterprise solutions for Arabic–Persian name matching and data enrichment, applying his language and technical skills to intelligence analysis. In 2008, he joined the Silicon Valley data analytics firm Palantir Technologies as one of its early employees. At Palantir, Stephens led teams focused on expanding the company’s business in the defense and intelligence sectors and on international growth. He was also involved in Palantir’s product development, helping design new analytical software offerings. During this period, Stephens served briefly as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University.

In 2014, he became a partner at Founders Fund, where he has focused on investments in startups operating in the government and defense technology space. In addition to investing, Stephens pursued his own entrepreneurial projects. His growing reputation in the defense-tech arena led to a role in government advisory: in late 2016, Stephens served on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, where he led the Department of Defense transition effort.

In 2017, Stephens co-founded Anduril Industries alongside Palmer Luckey (the founder of Oculus VR) and fellow former Palantir colleagues Matt Grimm, Joe Chen, and Brian Schimpf. The idea for Anduril had been seeded a few years earlier: in 2014, Stephens met Luckey at a Founders Fund retreat, where they bonded over the idea of applying Silicon Valley startup techniques to the defense sector. Anduril (named after a legendary sword in ''The Lord of the Rings'') set out to reinvent defense contracting by building advanced autonomous systems and surveillance technology.

The company’s first major project was a “virtual border wall” – a network of sensor towers and drones designed to detect unauthorized crossings on the U.S.–Mexico border. Under Stephens’s and Luckey’s leadership, Anduril quickly expanded its product line to include counter-drone systems, autonomous aircraft, and other AI-driven defense hardware. As chairman of Anduril, Stephens has helped the company secure significant contracts with the Department of Defense and allied nations. By early 2024 the company was valued at approximately $8.4 billion.

He co-founded a company called Sol in 2021, which developed a next-generation wearable e-reader device.

Personal life

Stephens has spoken openly about the influence of his personal beliefs on his professional endeavors. He is a devout Christian, and in June 2024 he garnered attention for preaching a sermon to a gathering of tech entrepreneurs about the intersection of Christian faith and innovation.

Stephens is married and has two sons. In a 2024 ''TechCrunch'' interview, he mentioned that his wife has made him promise never to run for public office, despite his involvement in government advisory roles. He is also personally interested in prepping: in the same interview, Stephens revealed that he has built an emergency bunker and keeps a survival kit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Trae
1983 births
Living people
American technology executives
American technology company founders
Businesspeople from Ohio
Georgetown University alumni