Family offices are making fewer deals but are still flocking to AI startups

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for the high-net-worth investor and consumer. subscription To receive future issues, directly to your inbox.

Investment firms belonging to ultra-wealthy families have been cutting back on deal-making throughout 2025, and the final quarter of the year is not a promising start. In October, family offices made 51 direct investments, down 63% year-on-year, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth platform Fintrx.

However, family offices still support massive fundraising for AI companies.

Last month, the eponymous investment firm owned by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss joined a $1.4 billion Series E round for Crusoe, boosting the data center developer’s valuation to $10 billion. Hillspur, ex-family officeGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt participated in a $2 billion Series B round for Reflection, an open source AI prototype lab now valued at $8 billion.

Family office investors have also participated in previous headline-grabbing rounds, such as Commonwealth Fusion’s $863 million Series B2 fundraising. Hillspire, Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective and Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office joined the power plant development round announced in August.

While family offices are placing fewer bets, they have not faltered in larger rounds, according to a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In the first half of 2025, family offices closed 23% fewer deals, but their value fell just 18% year-on-year, according to PwC. The proportion of family office deals worth more than $100 million remained steady at 15%, and those worth more than $500 million fell by just 1% to 3%.

Mega rounds by AI companies have helped support deal values. In the first half of this year, family offices made roughly the same number of investments in AI and machine learning than in the same period in 2023, but deal value nearly tripled to $123.3 billion, per PwC.

But even before the AI ​​wave, family offices were shifting their preference to larger deals, according to the consulting firm. Over the past decade, the proportion of investments under $25 million has shrunk from 70% to 59%. Deals worth between $25 million and $100 million now make up 26%, up 6 percentage points from 2015, and the share of deals worth more than $100 million increased from 9% to 15%.

The consulting firm’s report attributed this trend to family offices seeking to achieve greater returns and their “growing ambitions as major players in the global deal landscape.”