Following a wave of venture capital investments during the 2021 boom that did not produce strong returns for many firms, limited partners—including endowments, pension plans, and sovereign wealth funds—have increasingly directed their capital toward a smaller set of established firms with demonstrated success. The most recent major fundraising achievement belongs to Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The 25-year-old venture firm announced on Monday that it secured a total of $9 billion in new funds, marking the largest capital raise in its history. This comes at a time when initial public offerings have been scarce. Lightspeed was an early investor in Rubrik, Netskope, and Navan, all of which have recently gone public.

The firm has also established itself as a leading investor focused on artificial intelligence. Lightspeed reports having backed 165 AI-native companies, including Anthropic, xAI, Databricks, Mistral, Glean, Abridge, and Skild AI. With its substantial new fund, the firm is well-equipped to continue making significant investments in capital-intensive AI ventures. For example, Lightspeed reportedly contributed $1 billion to Anthropic when it co-led the large language model maker’s $13 billion funding round in September.

Lightspeed’s new capital is allocated across six funds, which includes a $3.3 billion opportunity fund reserved for follow-on investments in its most rapidly growing portfolio companies.

Other prominent venture firms that have recently raised substantial funds include Founders Fund, which gathered $4.6 billion for a growth fund earlier this year, along with General Catalyst’s $8 billion and Andreessen Horowitz’s $7.2 billion raises, both completed in 2024.

In contrast, newer and smaller venture capital firms are finding it difficult to attract fresh investment. According to PitchBook data, 2025 is projected to see the lowest number of VC fund closings in the past decade.