Sequoia has also made structural changes, shifting to an evergreen fund model in 2021 to hold investments in leading public companies for longer. Amid rising U.S.-China tensions, the firm announced in June that it's splitting from its China and South Asia division to refocus on the U.S. and European markets. Notable investments include backing generative video producer Tavus, Hugging Face, and Glean. Sequoia was also an early investor in Google, which later founded Google Brain, its AI research effort.
Key takeaways:
- Sequoia Capital has significantly increased its investments in artificial intelligence startups, with nearly 60% of its new investments in 2023 being in this sector, up from 16% the previous year.
- Stephanie Zhan, a partner at Sequoia Capital, believes that every company will eventually have some form of AI integrated into its operations, not as a primary focus but as an accelerator.
- Sequoia Capital has around 70 portfolio companies in the AI space, spanning various industries and stages of development, with 17 of those still in stealth mode.
- Sequoia Capital has made structural changes in recent years, including shifting to an evergreen fund model in 2021 and splitting from its China and South Asia division in 2023 to focus on the U.S. and European markets.