Founders Fund

Six venture capital firms—Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund, and General Catalyst—now raise more capital than all other U.S. venture firms combined, driven by AI startup demands, private company retention, and institutional investor preferences. These firms offer entrepreneurs resources like advisers and recruiting support but also impose high expectations for rapid scaling and large returns, prompting some founders to seek smaller, more flexible investors.

Cognition CEO Scott Wu criticized token spend leaderboards, arguing employees should be evaluated based on output rather than AI token usage. He highlighted Cognition's $26B valuation and its AI coding tool Devin, while other tech leaders like Legora's Jacob Lauritzen and Cerebras Systems' Andrew Feldman also decried tokenmaxxing as wasteful.

Founders Fund is investing in Shinkei, a company that develops a refrigerator-sized robot named Poseidon designed to kill fish quickly and humanely.

The SpaceX IPO marks a significant win for venture capital firms like Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Valor Equity Partners, and DFJ Growth, which invested in the company over the years. The IPO highlights a decades-long shift in VC scaling, with SpaceX's valuation reaching nearly $1.8 trillion.

Founders Fund launches a game show starring Sam Altman, Palmer Luckey, and other tech elites. The debut episode, moderated by Founders Fund Chief Marketing Officer Mike Solana, included a star-studded cast of current tech luminaries.

Longevity startup NewLimit raised $435 million in a Series C funding round led by Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Lilly Ventures, and tech entrepreneurs Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. The company, founded in 2021 by Brian Armstrong, Blake Byers, and Jacob Kimmel, plans to launch its first clinical trial of a liver medicine and is now valued at $3.1 billion.

A new crypto bank has been silently launched, backed by venture capitalist Peter Thiel. The initiative, linked to Thiel's Founders Fund, aims to expand into the cryptocurrency financial sector.