(Bloomberg) – On the quiet days before last year, when most adventurous capital fell to the escapes in ASPEN or Jackson Hole, the investment team in LightSpeed Venture Partners was thinking about a piece of competition competition Openai.
Most of them read from Bloomberg
The Anthropier Investment Capital is close to an offer to lead an investment of billions of dollars, according to a person familiar with the matter. Soon I took over an agreement: a $ 2 billion financing round with a value of $ 60 billion, as it was three times the start of the start a year ago. By early January, the deal was done effectively.
With $ 25 billion under management, LightSpeed is part of rare layers of VC companies ready and able to support the hottest and most expensive companies. In addition to the Antarbur, LightSpeed recently participated in a large financing tour for Databrics Inc.
AI Megadeals has become an essential element in the first -class VC system despite the risks, including companies that have not yet proven that they can benefit from these investments.
“It is a high risk poker.”
In the past three months alone, Xai, Openai and HotHROPIC have raised more than $ 20 billion to support huge computing costs. These deals combined the three companies at more than $ 250 billion. In all, startups in the United States raised the record $ 97 billion in 2024, according to Pitchbook data.
Investors said there is increasing pressure – especially on those who have missed the opportunity to support the best artificial intelligence companies at lower prices – to match the prominent players before it is too late. LightSpeed representatives and anthropoes refused to comment on this story.
“He shows that you are in the game,” said Peter Werner, co -chair of the Cooley’s Venture Capital Practice Group. “What you don’t want to be is a adventure box that tries to be in the mixture, loses or develops a reputation that you are not smart enough to reach the best and hotter rounds.”
You are turning
LightSpeed was founded more than 20 years ago, following a Dot-Com bust by Barry Eggers, Christopher Schaepe, Peter Nieh and Ravi Mhatre, who led human negotiations. It is famous for fatty investments in consumer technology, Fintech and Enterprise programs, making early bets on companies such as Snap Inc. As some of the most famous VC players. With AI’s aggressive bets, the families say these deals can permanently raise their position – if it succeeds.
Like a lot of VC industry, LightSpeed has brought attention to startups from artificial intelligence, as companies in early stage support the music company Suno Inc. And Pideo Startup Pika, as well as senior players. In December, she separated from ways with two major investors and said it was adjusting the consumer investment strategy to better suit “AI Agency”.
In total, Lightspeed has already invested $ 2.2 billion in artificial intelligence deals, a number that does not include his latest investment in man, according to another person who is aware of this issue. Soon, it will have an additional fire force to throw it into the thirsty companies. A person familiar with the issue said that it is close to the end of the collection of donations, which is expected to bring $ 7 billion. A spokesman for the LightSpeed refused to comment on the collection of donations. The information was mentioned earlier about the fundraising efforts.
The Anthropular Investment of the company is one of the most ambitious so far. Although the value of $ 60 billion may seem high in general, LightSpeed partners hope that one day the deal will appear like the deal.
“At the total, it seems that the assessments are expensive because we see a lot of activity and many deals that are being accomplished,” Juru Shal said at the Forty -Technology Conference last year. “When you look back, every round, at the time, looked incredibly expensive, and in the past, it was incredibly inexpensive.”
Amnesty International Large Deals are still a source of discussion in the Silicon Valley. Although the largest companies will be the most transformative, some investment capital have arguing that participating in huge financing rounds will not result in technology revenues who investors need to satisfy their supporters. These investors target smaller artificial intelligence applications and services, instead of giants such as Antarbur and Openai, which participate in the development of basic building blocks in the industry.
AI Megadeals’s recent spread also speaks to a broader transformation in VC: a departure from the traditional strategy of investments in the early stage, as companies gain larger shares with fewer assessments. Now, VC companies pay a great allowance, betting that a small number of artificial intelligence companies can eventually be more than $ 1 trillion.
Weber said that the growing volume of VC funds also requires companies to write larger checks. Instead of wasting huge complications on their investments, companies “do not necessarily try to find the runs of the house, they are trying to find ways to double their money.”
“There are only many pre -virtual companies for generations today,” IVP, Ajay Fashi, told IVP. “If your mandate is to invest at that point, you should find opportunities to put the capital of your money.”
Beginning of fragile
The race to find these opportunities is risky, including organizational uncertainty, fierce competition and high infrastructure costs to lead artificial intelligence developers.
Investors fear that their beta bets may shorten, leaving companies exposed if the bubble explodes. Indeed, the sector has witnessed some billion dollars in stumbling.
For example, LightSpeed participated in a high -level investment in artificial intelligence stability, a developer of publishing a billion -dollar photo generator in 2022. The Mustak era officer, lawsuits and financial difficulties. Mostaque resigned from the company in early 2024. The company has since appointed a new executive director and raised additional capital, Bloomberg said.
Lightspeed is also a major investor in Mistral, a Paris -based open source company that is now competing for a large number of better funded language models.
Of course, Lightspeed and other VC companies hope that putting many bets in competing companies will lead to at least one winner of artificial intelligence. If not, the repercussions may be great.
“You cannot lose a lot of games of high -risk poker,” said Sierra Ventass Golri. “This is the danger of the strategy.”
