Lightspeed raises record $9 billion in new capital

After the failure of the increase in venture capital investments from the 2021 bubble Achieve strong returns From many investment firms, limited partners, such as endowments, pension plans, and sovereign wealth funds, have begun to direct… Larger share From their capital to a select group of existing companies with proven track records.

The latest huge amount of capital has arrived at Lightspeed Venture Partners. The 25-year-old venture firm announced Monday that it has raised a total of… 9 billion dollars In New Money, the largest fundraising operation in the company’s history.

At a time when very few companies have been able to go public, Lightspeed was one of its first investors address, Netscopeand Navanall of which recently made their public market debut.

The company has also positioned itself as an investor focused mostly on artificial intelligence. Lightspeed claims to have backed 165 AI companies, including Anthropic, xAI, Databricks, Mistral, Glean, Abridge and Skild AI.

Armed with its giant new fund, the company can continue to make huge investments in capital-intensive AI companies. For example, Lightspeed reportedly wrote a $1 billion check to Anthropic when it co-led the LLM Maker project. $13 billion Investing in September

Lightspeed’s new capital is spread across six funds, including a $3.3 billion Opportunity Fund dedicated to pursuing investments in its fastest-growing portfolio companies.

Other large venture capital firms that have recently raised massive capital include Founders Fund, which raised earlier this year $4.6 billion For the Growth Fund; General catalyst 8 billion dollars Transfer of capital and Andreessen Horowitz $7.2 billionBoth are guaranteed in 2024.

Meanwhile, newer and smaller venture capital firms They struggle To attract new money. According to PitchBook data, 2025 is on pace to record the lowest number of venture capital fund closings in the past 10 years.