The Billionaires Fueling the Quest for Longer Life
Investors including Peter Thiel and Sam Altman are making big bets on where longevity science is headed
How much would you invest in the possibility of living to 150 or beyond? Or having 20 extra healthy years?
For the ultrawealthy, it’s more than $5 billion over the past 2½ decades, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of longevity investment deals in PitchBook, public company statements and regulatory filings.
Silicon Valley giants Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Yuri Milner and Marc Andreessen are among the boldface names behind the influx of money in the longevity industry. Thiel’s quest for longer life spans nearly a dozen companies—some of which were funded by his venture firm and others by a nonprofit foundation he backed—that raised more than $700 million, according to the Journal’s analysis.
They and other wealthy investors have helped push what was once something of an academic backwater into the cultural mainstream.
Many companies ultimately fail, but the ultrawealthy and other enthusiasts are following the money and the science to decide where to invest and what to take.
Who’s betting big
Here’s a look at the network of entrepreneurs and big investors building up the longevity space, the sector’s growth and what scientific approaches the ultrawealthy are placing bets on.
How much money
Money has been pouring in from some of the wealthiest investors, fueled by these personal connections and passions.
Armstrong’s fundraising for NewLimit includes a $130 million round in May. Among the company’s investors are the funds of fellow billionaires Khosla and Thiel.
Altos, launched in 2022, raised $3 billion—the most of any company identified by the Journal—to develop technology to rejuvenate cells. Artificial-intelligence drug discovery company Insilico Medicine, which is backed by Diamandis’s BOLD Capital, raised more than $500 million to treat multiple age-related diseases. Another company, BioAge Labs, which is developing drugs to treat diseases of aging, raised $559 million, which includes investments from Khosla Ventures and Andreessen’s a16z fund.
BioAge’s chief executive, Kristen Fortney, met investors interested in her research at a Stanford lab and through her involvement in a salon for longevity enthusiasts run by Betts-LaCroix.
BioAge went public in 2024, raising the funds to develop an obesity drug and other programs. A trial of an obesity drug halted later that year over safety concerns. BioAge launched a new trial of a different obesity drug this year.
“A lot of people already make it past the age of 100 and they’re healthy. So why can’t that be achievable for all of us?” Fortney said.
That concept has taken hold and is helping drive investors, with the average fundraising round for longevity companies growing by more than 20% in the past decade to nearly $43 million this year, by the Journal’s calculations.
Why they invest
Many of the ultrawealthy individuals flooding the longevity space are motivated by highly personal reasons.
Naveen Jain says his father’s death from pancreatic cancer led him to found Viome Life Sciences, which has raised over $230 million. Viome sells at-home health tests and analyzes the data to make personalized nutrition and supplement recommendations. Jain, a billionaire, invested $30 million of his own money in Viome. Benioff and Khosla Ventures are also investors. “I want to make aging optional,” Jain says.
Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, tried a diet designed to mimic the effects of fasting developed by longevity scientist Valter Longo. Bancel later led a $47 million funding round for Longo’s company L-Nutra, which develops fasting nutrition programs.
“I want to be able to have the biggest impact,” says Bancel.
Khosla through his firm is one of the most prolific longevity investors identified by the Journal, with each of the investments focused on different aspects of aging. “At 70, someone should feel like a 40-year-old,” he said during an interview with the Superteam Podcast, a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
The science attracting big money
There is no consensus on what makes something a longevity company. The Journal identified three key areas the ultrawealthy are focused on, by companies’ publicly reported missions: Efforts to reverse or change aging, develop treatments for age-related diseases, or sell products or services claiming to improve health and extend lifespan.
The quest for ways to “reprogram” and rejuvenate cells is one of the biggest generating buzz in Silicon Valley circles. The idea of returning people to a more youthful state is propelling Altos, Retro, Juvenescence and more than 80 other companies to raise some $5 billion. Retro says it is trying to raise another $1 billion.
Companies seeking treatments for diseases linked to aging include BioAge Labs. Nearly 60 biotechs in this space have raised nearly $5 billion.
For those interested in antiaging strategies that can be tried right now, big money is pouring into companies selling health trackers, supplements and cosmetics, raising some $2.6 billion.
Longevity personalities
Prominent personalities have helped build longevity’s cachet among wealthy investors and the public, founding companies and building demand.
Peter Attia: Author of a bestselling longevity book and host of a popular podcast, Attia co-founded the high-end clinic Biograph with Silicon Valley entrepreneur John Hering.
David Sinclair: A popular lecturer on the longevity circuit, the Harvard professor’s genetics lab is a frequent stop for wealthy individuals interested in learning about and sometimes funding age-reversal research.
Bryan Johnson: His Silicon Valley-fueled fortune and willingness to spend $1 million a year on self-experiments attempting to slow down his aging led to a Netflix documentary and public attention.
Peter Diamandis: The entrepreneur and investor tapped billionaires and other wealthy individuals as donors for the XPrize Foundation he founded and its XPrize Healthspan, a prize competition with a $101 million purse to develop ways to reverse aspects of aging.