Coatue Management, a hedge fund that invested heavily in tech startups during the pandemic-driven boom, is raising $1 billion to back AI-focused companies, Bloomberg reported Monday.
The funding, which will complement the company’s flagship fund, will come primarily from institutional investors. However, according to the report, high-net-worth individuals with accounts at brokerage Raymond James and Associates could also invest in Coatue.
Coatue, which manages nearly $50 billion in assets, has invested in more than 170 venture-backed companies in 2021, according to PitchBook data. Coatue has since significantly slowed its pace of investment in startups, backing only 81 companies in 2022 and around 30 companies in 2023.
The crossover investor, however, is not done with investments in private companies. So far in 2024, Coatue has backed 29 startups, according to PitchBook data. The company’s latest AI-focused investments include Glean, Scale AI and Skild AI, which are building a general-purpose AI robot. Philippe Laffont, the founder of Coatue (pictured above), said he was particularly excited about humanoid robots with AI-powered brains.