Synopsis
Sequoia Capital, a major venture capital firm, has secured about $7 billion for a new fund, according to a report by Bloomberg. This significant capital will fuel expansion into artificial intelligence startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. The fund also targets late-stage investments in the US and Europe.Listen to this article in summarized format
The latest fund will allow Sequoia to expand its bets on large companies, including artificial intelligence startups like OpenAI and Anthropic, whose immense needs for expensive computing resources have driven record-breaking fundraising hauls.
The $7 billion will be dedicated to the firm’s so-called expansion strategy, which backs its latest stage investing in the US and Europe. It’s roughly double the firm’s last expansion fund: a $3.4 billion vehicle raised in 2022. The new fundraising took place earlier this year, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
Sequoia declined to comment.
The funding marks a new chapter for the firm under its current leaders. Last year, Roelof Botha handed the reins to Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, who are serving as co-stewards of the firm. In addition to expanding bets on AI giants, Sequoia has also recently shifted some of its investing roles.
In March, Sequoia named former senior steward Doug Leone as chairman, bringing him back into an active investing role. It also recently added Liam Corrigan and Sonali Singh to its investing ranks. And it hired Carl Eschenbach, a former investor at Sequoia who had left the firm in 2022 to work as the co-CEO of Workday Inc.
Meanwhile, several investors have stepped back from their positions at the firm: Those include Josephine Chen, Charlie Curnin and Cornelius Menke. Investor Ravi Gupta has reduced his role to launch a new startup, but remains a partner.
The new fundraising also signals a focus on AI giants. Sequoia has already bet on many of the country’s largest AI companies — several of which directly compete. Its investments include Anthropic and OpenAI, as well as Musk’s xAI, now part of SpaceX. All three companies are jockeying to go public in 2026, which could lead to significant returns for Sequoia if the public listings are a success.
The new funding will also be used to back mature companies that aren’t directly in AI-native businesses. For example, one of Sequoia’s biggest exits was Wiz, a cybersecurity company that was sold to Alphabet for $32 billion, a deal that closed last month.
The latest funds comes on top of the approximately $2.5 billion haul that the firm announced last year for seed, venture and growth-stage investments. Sequoia had more than $80 billion in assets under management as of the end of last year, according to a securities filing, making it one of the biggest VC firms in the country by assets under management.
It’s not the only firm adding billions to its balance sheet. Iconiq, a venture firm that has made significant investments into Anthropic, is currently fundraising for its eighth fund, according to people familiar with the matter and securities filings. Additionally, General Catalyst is in talks to raise about $10 billion in new funding, Bloomberg previously reported.
