(Bloomberg) — Alpha Intelligence Capital, which invests in artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI, is raising $250 million and has attracted government-linked groups in France and Singapore as backers.
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AIC has raised $160 million for the second fund and is on track to close by September, according to partners Arnaud Barthelemy and Terry Chou, who said participants include France’s Bpifrance, Taiwan’s CDIB Capital Group and Singapore’s state-backed fund.
The new AIC fund is already operational, and its initial investors include ChatGPT creator OpenAI and computing architecture startup FlexAI. The Luxembourg-based fund is betting that businesses and consumers around the world will continue to accelerate their adoption of AI, driven by the popularity of services such as chatbot ChatGPT.
Singapore’s state-owned company Temasek Holdings is also an investor in the new fund, according to people familiar with the deal. AIC’s partners declined to confirm their names, and Temasek representatives also declined to comment. AIC is in discussions with two further sovereign investors and a global backer to close the fund, the partners said.
AIC’s previous investments include Chinese AI developer SenseTime Group Inc., which is likely to have largely exited. Chow, who is based at AIC’s Asia headquarters in Singapore, said its first fund also included AI startups that were eventually acquired by Apple Inc., International Business Machines Inc. and BioNTech SE. .
Venture capital firms are raising billions of dollars around the world to back technologies such as the generative AI that powers chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft Corp.’s Copilot. These investors expect AI-powered tools to fundamentally rethink traditional ways of doing business and help solve technology challenges.
Still, increased interest in AI can lead to higher valuations for startups with unclear paths to monetization, said Barthelemy, who is also AIC’s chief operating officer.
“Our investors believe that AI will have a significant impact on their businesses across all sectors, and that this is just the beginning,” he said. “Our investors trust our expertise to help them navigate the AI hype.”
Chou said the fund will consider companies across the AI value chain, including hardware startups. He said the focus will be on companies implementing AI in applications, cybersecurity and gaming. The fund invests worldwide, excluding China.
–With assistance from David Ramli.
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