Lightspeed Venture Partners seeks $600M to expand AI investments

Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised $600 million through a dedicated co-investment fund designed to deepen its stakes in the AI sector’s most prominent companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic. The fund, which closed in December 2025, is part of a broader fundraising push that saw the firm pull in over $9 billion across six different investment vehicles, its largest haul in 25 years. Where the money is going The $600 million Co-Investment Fund I is specifically structured for follow-on investments in companies Lightspeed already believes in. The firm wants to extend its holdings in OpenAI and funnel fresh capital into Anthropic, the Claude-maker that has become one of the most sought-after names in generative AI. Lightspeed’s relationship with Anthropic is already deep. The firm led Anthropic’s $3.5 billion Series E funding round in March 2025, making it the largest backer in that financing cycle. It also participated in Anthropic’s subsequent Series F round, a $13 billion raise. Across its broader portfolio, Lightspeed has backed more than 165 AI-native companies and deployed over $5.5 billion into the sector. The VC arms race for AI allocation Without dedicated follow-on capi...