Arizona Tribune - AI Fund Closes Oversubscribed $190 Million Fund II to Co-Found AI Startups

PALO ALTO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / May 5, 2025 / AI Fund, the venture studio founded by renowned AI pioneer and entrepreneur Andrew Ng, today announced the successful closing of its second fund, raising approximately $190 million in an oversubscribed round. This builds on the success of the studio's first $175 million fund and reflects the growing demand for AI-driven innovation across industries.

"AI technology advances over the past few years are creating a golden age for founding startups," said Ng, Managing General Partner. "With AI technology giving us increasingly better building blocks for developing software, plus the cost of prototyping plummeting because of AI assisted coding, we can create new startups faster and more efficiently than was ever possible before."

A High-Impact Model for Building AI Startups

AI Fund's venture studio model gives entrepreneurs a distinct advantage by combining deep AI expertise, market validation, and hands-on talent acquisition support. From ideation to launch, the studio partners with 0-to-1 entrepreneurs to shape the vision, build products, and assemble top-tier technical and leadership teams. This approach fast-tracks AI-powered solutions to market.

Under Ng's leadership, AI Fund works alongside entrepreneurs to build companies focused on the application and software infrastructure layers of the AI stack, leveraging foundation models to develop solutions across multiple sectors. The studio's portfolio includes ventures in financial services, renewable energy, future of work, education, logistics, healthcare, and developer tools.

Backing from Global Corporations

AI Fund's latest fundraise attracted a number of corporate limited partners (LPs), including The AES Corporation; HP Inc.; Mitsui & Co., Ltd.; Mitsubishi Corporation; QBE; and TELUS Global Ventures; among other notable venture capital investors such as Sequoia Capital and NEA. These corporate LPs are among the leaders in their industries that span technology, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrials, and real estate. AI Fund's corporate LPs have a global presence, with operations spanning nearly every continent.

The participation of these global corporate partners not only signals confidence in AI Fund's approach, but also reflects the collaborative foundation on which many of the fund's most promising ventures are built:

"Many of our ideas originate from close collaborations with corporate partners and VCs who identify critical gaps in their industries, allowing us to launch businesses with built-in customers, proprietary data sets, and market traction," said Warren Packard, Partner at AI Fund. "By bringing together corporate insights and entrepreneurial energy, we create companies that are positioned for long-term success."

"We believe AI Fund has a clear eye for what's next, and the ability to turn bold ideas into high-impact ventures," said Carmen Chang, Partner and Head of Asia, NEA. "As returning investors, we've seen how their model gives founders an edge in a fast-moving and increasingly competitive AI market. We're excited to continue supporting Andrew Ng and the team as they help shape the future of AI and its real-world impact."

"The next wave of AI innovation won't just be about breakthroughs in technology-it will be about how we build, scale, and apply those breakthroughs," said Andrés Gluski, CEO of The AES Corporation, "AI Fund is cultivating the kind of entrepreneurial rigor and technical depth needed to shape solutions that matter. We're excited to partner with AI Fund on a model that pairs visionary thinking with real-world execution."

"At HP, we are on a mission to create meaningful AI experiences that drive growth and more fulfilling work experiences for people everywhere," said Enrique Lores, President and CEO, HP Inc. "Our investment in AI Fund reflects our dedication to catalyzing the development of new experiences that allow users to benefit from AI at the edge. By supporting software innovators and startups, we aim to foster the entrepreneurial spirit needed to develop impactful AI solutions that will shape the future of work."

Investing in the Future of AI

AI Fund has been building AI startups since long before the widespread rise of tools like ChatGPT and the recent AI boom. With its latest fund, it will continue co-founding companies that leverage the latest technologies like agentic AI, reasoning models, and multi-modal AI.

"AI Fund is oriented to moving fast in how we build companies," said Ng. "Building startups is hard, and by systematically approaching the many steps of early stage startup building, such as ideation, having customer conversations, prototyping, product and engineering work, recruiting elite talent, acquiring capital, and so on, we minimize bottlenecks and help companies go much faster."

For more information, visit https://aifund.ai/.

ABOUT AI FUND:

AI Fund is a venture studio that strives to move humanity forward by accelerating the adoption of AI. We work with entrepreneurs to build companies rapidly and increase their odds of success. The studio is supported by top-tier VCs and partners including Sequoia Capital, NEA, AES, and Nikkei. Learn more at https://aifund.ai/.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lauren Gill, MAG PR at E: [email protected]; P: 978-473-1362

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SOURCE: AI Fund

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