Kleiner Perkins Raises $3.5 Billion in New AI-Focused Funds

Kleiner Perkins closed $3.5 billion in new funds aimed squarely at artificial intelligence, the Menlo Park firm announced Tuesday, surpassing its previous flagship raise by more than $1.4 billion and signaling one of the most aggressive bets on AI infrastructure in Silicon Valley's current funding cycle.

The fundraise includes $1 billion for KP22, a fund to back early-stage companies, and $2.5 billion targeted for growth-stage investments. The firm is making bets on artificial intelligence startups reshaping industries including software, health care, transportation and autonomy. For the early-stage vehicle, "The AI super-cycle is one of the most important company-building moments in our lifetimes, and we are still in the early innings," its fundraising announcement states. Kleiner also notes that AI is enabling today's startups to iterate and grow faster than in past cycles.

It is a considerable increase in capital commitments compared to the last time the Silicon Valley-based firm raised a flagship fund, back in 2024, when Kleiner pulled in just over $2 billion for funds to back early- and later-stage startups. The firm now manages more than $21 billion in assets.

Founded in 1972, Kleiner has long been known as a cross-industry investor, active in virtually every popular sector for venture dealmaking. The firm built its reputation on early positions in Google and Amazon, and its latest fund extends that cross-sector instinct into an AI context: Kleiner identified focus areas including professional services, healthcare, autonomy, security, financial services and the physical economy.

The firm's recent deal flow reflects the scope of that ambition. The largest recent investment was a $600 million Series F for Applied Intuition, a developer of autonomous vehicle technology. That was followed by a $356 million Series D for Chainguard, focused on secure open-source software for AI systems, and a $300 million Series E for Harvey, the AI legal tech unicorn.

Those bets arrive alongside a stretch of meaningful portfolio exits. Figma, which counted Kleiner as Series B lead investor, was last year's largest software IPO; Kleiner, along with Greylock Partners and Index Ventures, saw profits exceeding $1.4 billion from that listing, according to The Information. The firm was also an early lead investor in business credit card provider Brex, which Capital One agreed to acquire this year for $5.15 billion.

The new capital lands as the broader venture market braces for what could be a generational liquidity moment. Pitchbook recently reported that the potential public listings of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic in 2026 could be the most consequential liquidity events in venture capital history, with valuations of $1.25 trillion, $840 billion, and $330 billion, respectively. Against that backdrop, General Catalyst is separately reported to be in discussions to raise approximately $10 billion in new capital, underscoring the scale of institutional conviction now flowing into AI.

For Kleiner, a firm that has navigated five decades of technology cycles, the $3.5 billion raise represents not just a larger fund but a sharper thesis: that the current AI buildout is distinct enough from prior cycles to justify deploying capital at a materially higher velocity than it did just two years ago.