Laurene Powell Jobs speaks on stage during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017.
Steve Jennings
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Sign up To receive future editions delivered directly to your inbox.
News that Laurene Powell Jobs is investing in a new artificial intelligence “computing device” highlights her growing interest in artificial intelligence startups, according to new data.
According to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, a private wealth intelligence platform, Powell Jobs' family office, investment company and philanthropic arm Emerson Collective has invested in at least 11 artificial intelligence-related startups since 2022.
Emerson's AI bets span the globe and across industries, including a New York-based AI medical company, a San Jose, Calif.-based image analyzer, a large French language model developer and an AI briefing creation company used by Norwegian teachers. who.
The amount of Emerson’s artificial intelligence investment was not disclosed. According to Fintrx, Emerson Collective has participated in AI financing totaling more than $1 billion.
Representatives for Emerson declined to comment.
Emerson does not disclose its total assets under management. Powell Jobs, the philanthropist, investor and widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has a net worth of $11.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Emerson focuses primarily on education, environment and healthcare. According to Finxtrx statistics, Emerson has made a total of more than 130 investments, more than half of which are in the technology field, 48 investments in the healthcare and life sciences fields, and the rest in energy, agriculture, education and public services, media and other fields. Raffi Krikorian is a former senior executive at Uber and Twitter and is currently Emerson’s chief technology officer.
The New York Times reports this week Renowned Apple designer Jony Ive, who worked closely with Steve Jobs and left the company in 2019, is working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to create a New “computing devices” using artificial intelligence. Their joint venture reportedly aims to raise more than $1 billion by the end of the year, and Emerson is one of its founding investors along with Ive.
Artificial intelligence has become the most popular investment theme for family offices in 2024. .
Long before OpenAI launched ChatGPT, Powell Jobs began investing in artificial intelligence, setting off the current artificial intelligence investment and consumption boom. In June 2022, Emerson made an $80 million Series C investment in Proximie, a health technology company whose platform is used to connect operating rooms. In August 2022, it invested $14 million in Series A funding for Atropos Health, a company that provides clinical data to doctors.
Emerson continues to invest in artificial intelligence startups around the world, including providing $4.6 million in seed financing to Norway's Curipod, which helps teachers create interactive courses, and providing $415 million in Series A financing to Mistral, a large French language model manufacturer.
Emerson's two most recent AI investments are AI pharmaceutical company Formation Bio, which raised $372 million in June, and Atropos, which raised $33 million in follow-on funding.