On January 26, 2023, Bernard Arnault, president of LVMH, the world's top luxury goods group, released the group's 2022 annual results in Paris.
Stefano Relandini | AFP | Getty Images
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Luxury goods king Bernard Arnault is buying artificial intelligence companies.
Arnold, Founder and CEO LVMH The world's fourth-richest man, with a net worth of $184 billion, has made a series of artificial intelligence investments this year through his technology-focused venture capital firm and family office Aglaé Ventures.
Aglaé made five AI-related investments in 2024, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth intelligence platform Fintrx. Although the amount of Aglaé's investment was not disclosed, the artificial intelligence company's total funding exceeds $300 million, according to Fintrx.
According to Fintrx, the largest round of financing this year came from a company called H, formerly known as Holistic AI, a French startup dedicated to realizing full artificial intelligence. It was founded by former members Google's Investors in the DeepMind AI unit include venture capital firm Accel Partners LP and former Google CEOs Wendy and Eric Schmidt. A $220 million financing in May, which also included Aglaé, valued H at $370 million, according to the company.
Aglaé also invested $25 million in a seed round for Lamini, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based enterprise AI applications startup. In April, Aglaé participated in a $12 million Series A round for Proxima, a New York-based artificial intelligence digital marketing company.
Aglaé joined Susquehanna in a $27 million seed investment in Toronto-based human resources management platform Borderless AI. Additionally, it invested in French artificial intelligence image editor Photoroom in February as part of a $43 million investment round.
While many of Aglaé's AI investments are more recent, it raised four rounds of funding between 2017 and 2019 in Meero, a Paris-based AI photo creation company, according to Fintrx.
Other investments by the family office this year include Irvine, Calif.-based blockchain company Sonarverse and San Francisco-based ADHD coaching provider Shimmer.
Fintrx data shows that since 2017, Aglaé has made a total of 153 investments, 53 of which were in the technology sector, 17 in the consumer goods sector, 13 in the business services sector, and 12 in the financial services sector.
Its other investments include digital health platform Noom and music creation app World Music Media. Aglaé is part of multiple rounds of funding for Back Market, a France-based marketplace for refurbished electronics valued at $5.7 billion in 2022.
Since the Arnault family's wealth is highly concentrated in LVMH, which owns about 48% of the shares and controls 64% of the voting rights, Aglaé has no reason to invest in luxury goods.
However, Arnaud and his family are major art collectors, and Agra is an investor in a $9.5 million round in the digital art platform LaCollection. LVMH is rapidly expanding in the luxury watch sector, and Aglaé is an investor in watch trading platform Chrono24's $108 million financing in 2021.
Arnold is known for his passion for luxury craftsmanship, historic brands and emotional connection to design and artists, but he is also a technology junkie with a history of backing successful tech startups. His family office was an early investor in the company Netflix 1999, Spotify 2014 and Airbnb 2015.
In a speech at the LVMH Innovation Awards in May, Arnaud said he invested in 75 startups in the 1990s, “some of which succeeded, but many of which did not.”
“The entrepreneurial mindset is very close to our values: creativity, quality – it has to work – entrepreneurship and meaning,” he said.