Palmer Luckey's Erebor Bank Tops $7 Billion in Deposits
Palmer Luckey's bank is on a tear. Erebor, the tech-focused bank founded by the Oculus creator and Anduril co-founder, has surged to more than $7 billion in deposits since launching in February, adding over $3 billion and more than 500 new customers in just the past quarter, per the Financial Times.
The bank aims to replace the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank as the lender of choice for early-stage technology businesses, and the deposit numbers suggest it is filling that gap fast.
Growth at a pace banks rarely see
Erebor's deposit base has climbed from $1.1 billion disclosed to regulators at the end of March to over $7 billion now. Earlier this year, deposits nearly quadrupled in three months to reach $4.05 billion, per Bloomberg, with the bank adding hundreds of customers a quarter.
Luckey has said none of the deposit growth this quarter came from his own companies, pushing back on related-party theories by saying hundreds of new customers had chosen Erebor independently.
Backed by Silicon Valley's heaviest hitters
Erebor won its national bank charter in February 2026, the first de novo bank chartered under President Trump's second term after conditional OCC approval in October 2025 and FDIC deposit insurance in December 2025.
The bank is reportedly in advanced talks to raise roughly $1.5 billion at an $8 billion pre-money valuation, about $9.5 billion post-money, which would make it the most valuable private bank in the United States. Backers include Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, 8VC, and Haun Ventures. Erebor also expects to be profitable by year-end, an almost unheard-of timeline for a bank less than a year old.
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Options market and stocks to watch
Erebor's surge spotlights the startup-banking lane left open since SVB's collapse, and it is a competitive read-through for public banks and fintechs chasing early-stage tech deposits. Big banks benefit from the same deposit demand but face a fast-moving challenger stealing share in crypto and defense tech.
Stocks to watch include SCHW, whose banking arm competes for startup and investor deposits, along with money-center banks JPM and BAC on deposit-migration trends. Regional bank proxies like KRE can move on the challenger-bank narrative, while crypto-exposed names like COIN tie into Erebor's crypto-friendly positioning.
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