Lightspeed raises record $9 billion in new capital

After the wave of venture capital investments from the 2021 bubble failed to produce strong returns from many venture capital firms, limited partners, such as endowments, pension plans and sovereign wealth funds, began shifting a greater share of their capital into a select group of established companies with proven performance 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 in new money, the largest fundraising in the company’s history.

At a time when very few companies have been able to go public, Lightspeed was an early investor in Rubrik, Netskope, and Navan, all 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 LLM’s $13 billion investment 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 pools include Founders Fund, which earlier this year raised $4.6 billion for a growth fund, as well as General Catalyst’s $8 billion and Andreessen Horowitz’s $7.2 billion, both of which were secured in 2024.

Meanwhile, newer, smaller venture capital firms are struggling 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.