Laurene Powell Jobs bets on AI startups

September 30

Laurene Powell Jobs speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2017. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

Steve Jennings

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

News that Laurene Powell Jobs is investing in a new artificial intelligence “computing device” highlights her growing appetite for AI startups, according to fresh data.

The Emerson Collective, Powell Jobs’ family office, investment company and philanthropy, has invested in at least 11 AI-related startups since 2022, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, the private wealth intelligence platform.

Emerson’s AI bets span the globe and the industry, including a New York-based AI medical company, a San Jose, California-based image analyzer, a French developer of large language models and a Norwegian creator of AI presentations used by teachers.

The dollar amounts of Emerson’s AI investments aren’t disclosed. According to Fintrx, the Emerson Collective has participated in AI funding rounds totaling more than $1 billion.

A representative for the Emerson Collective declined to comment.

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Emerson doesn’t 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 is mainly focused on education, the environment and health care. According to Finxtrx, Emerson has made over 130 investments in total, with more than half in technology, 48 in health care and life sciences, and the rest in energy, agriculture, education and human services, media, and other categories. Raffi Krikorian, former executive at Uber and Twitter, is Emerson’s chief technology officer.

The New York Times reported this week that Jony Ive, the celebrated Apple designer who worked closely with Steve Jobs and left the company in 2019, is teaming up with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to create a new “computing device” for using AI. Their venture aims to raise up to $1 billion by the end of the year, and the Emerson Collective is one of its founding investors along with Ive, according to the report.

AI has become the most popular investment theme for family offices in 2024. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report, 78% of family offices surveyed plan to invest in AI in the next two to three years — the most for any investment category.

Powell Jobs started investing in AI even before OpenAI launched ChatGPT, which kicked off the current AI investment and consumer craze. In June 2022, Emerson invested in an $80 million C-round investment in Proximie, a health tech company whose platform is used to connect operating rooms. In August 2022, it invested in a $14 million Series A round for Atropos Health, which provides physicians with clinical data.

Emerson went on to invest in AI startups around the world, including a $4.6 million seed round for Norway’s Curipod, which helps teachers create interactive lessons, and a $415 million Series A round for Mistral, the French maker of large language models.

Emerson’s two most recent AI investments are Formation Bio, an AI pharma company, which raised $372 million in June, and a $33 million follow-on round for Atropos.