Limited partners say they are comfortable with venture funds piling into the same two AI companies, even as they warn that the speed at which managers are deploying and raising capital deserves caution.
Beezer Clarkson of Zurich-based LGT Capital Partners and Amit Bhatti of Chapel Hill-based TrueBridge, which invests only in venture, described the mood among LPs as upbeat. Valuations at OpenAI and Anthropic have risen so quickly that many funds, often within the same firm, now hold both. Bhatti called the concentration "a feature, not a bug", noting that venture is a power-law business and mature funds typically consolidate into a few names. Older funds, he said, hold large stakes in Databricks, SpaceX and Stripe. What is different now is how fast it has happened.
Pacing is the bigger concern. Clarkson said funds are coming back to market on one-year cycles, against a norm of two to two and a half years. Bhatti put the traditional range at 24 to 36 months, with 12 to 18 months now common among the fastest managers. He said many are also raising fund sizes mid-cycle, partly because rounds have grown. Seed rounds are almost twice as large, and a 20% allocation to an Anthropic round would put a fund well ahead of pace. He called it "a yellow light" that gives LPs "a little bit of heartburn".
Bhatti said the investments themselves look different from the last period of fast deployment, which included many zero-revenue crypto bets. Now, he said, companies are going from zero to $100 million in revenue, which was previously unheard of.
Both said LPs rarely walk away from managers, since leaving makes it hard to return. More often they cut cheque sizes or flag changes upfront. Clarkson added that some investors rotate out of venture when capital calls continue without distributions, putting pressure on endowments, hospitals and foundations.
On older vintages, Clarkson said the 2021 funds argue against one-year fund cycles. Bhatti would not bet on the COVID vintage being the best, though he expects some breakouts, including OpenAI and Cursor, and said liquidity has begun to flow.
