Early Solana Backer Foundation Capital Raises $600M for Eleventh Flagship Fund

Foundation Capital, an early backer in Solana and AI chip maker Cerebras, has raised $600 million for its eleventh flagship fund.

The fund is 20% larger than its predecessor $500 million fund, which closed around three years ago.

Foundation Capital’s focus is on early-stage investing, which “means being there at day zero,” according to an announcement on Tuesday. As such, 80% of Foundation’s investments happen before the company has generated any revenue at all.

For example, Foundation Capital first invested in 2016 when AI chip market was still nascent. Cerebras is now a $4.25 billion company and has plans for an initial public offering (IPO) at an unspecified date in the future.

“Our first AI investment was in 2009, over a decade before ChatGPT brought AI to the mainstream. We’ve been investing in blockchain since 2014, unfazed by frigid crypto winters,” the company said in Tuesday’s announcement.