The $5 Billion Roth IRA: Inside Peter Thiel’s Legendary Tax-Free Account

Peter Thiel’s Roth IRA is one of the most famous examples of the extraordinary growth potential of tax-advantaged retirement accounts and is arguably among the largest individual retirement accounts ever created. Thiel reportedly started the account with less than $2,000 in 1999 and used those funds to acquire early shares of PayPal (PYPL) at a very low valuation. He then reinvested proceeds into early-stage companies, most notably Facebook (META) before its IPO, again at an exceptionally low cost basis. Through a combination of high-growth private investments and the tax-free structure of a Roth IRA, the account reportedly grew to approximately $5 billion by 2019. Its current value in 2026 is unknown, but it may be substantially higher. For comparison, Warren Buffett’s Roth IRA was reported to be worth around $20 million during roughly the same period, illustrating the extraordinary scale of Thiel’s account growth.