a16z's two AI investments have a combined equity value exceeding 8 billion USD

a16z's AI infrastructure team has successfully backed two acquisitions within five days: Cursor has been acquired by SpaceX, and Stripe announced the acquisition of OpenRouter. According to The Information, the total value of a16z's holdings corresponding to these two investments has exceeded $8 billion.

In 2024, a16z participated in Cursor's $60 million Series A round, when the company's valuation was only $400 million. Now, SpaceX is acquiring Cursor for $60 billion. Bloomberg previously reported that a16z is Cursor's largest external shareholder, holding about 10%, which is valued at approximately $6 billion based on the acquisition price.

In 2024, a16z established its first $1.25 billion infrastructure-focused fund. The Information states that the two transactions involving Cursor and OpenRouter are enough for the related fund to return all principal to LPs and also provide additional profits. This year, a16z raised another $1.7 billion for its infrastructure fund and recently raised an additional $1.1 billion specifically for AI hardware. Martin Casado, head of AI infrastructure, noted that a few years ago, only about 5% of the startup projects he encountered were in hardware, and now that figure is close to 20%.