Beverly Hills-based Sound Ventures LLC is channeling its capital into artificial intelligence.
Co-founded by actor and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher and talent manager and investor Guy Oseary, the venture capital firm has announced a new $240 million AI Fund. Since the fund’s establishment in early May, the company has invested in OpenAI, StabilityAi and, as of last week, Anthropic.
Sound Ventures said that the initial plan is to back only six companies, meaning that invested funds will be highly concentrated.
“We anticipate that AI is going to play an impactful role in everything we do – including entertainment, an industry we know well,” Oseary said in a statement. “The companies we are backing will be at the forefront of this powerful innovation, and Sound Ventures is excited to bring our distinct experiences and connectivity to responsibly support these AI foundational platforms.”
Sound Ventures manages more than $1 billion in assets. Its active investments include East Hollywood-based social media platform Pearpop and fraud-prevention and compliance software company Sardine. Notable exits include Airbnb Inc., Duolingo, Poshmark, Spotify, Warby Parker and Uber Technologies Inc.
Anthropic, based in San Francisco, raisised $450 million in a recent series C funding round led by Spark Capital, with participation from Sound Ventures and others. Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI executives and is a generative AI company that develops machine-learning and language models. Its products include a chatbot named “Claude.” Google has reportedly invested around $300 million into Anthropic, while the size of Sound Ventures’ stake in the company has not been disclosed.
“We are thrilled that these leading investors and technology companies are supporting Anthropic’s mission (of) AI research and products that put safety at the frontier,” Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei said in a statement. “The systems we are building are being designed to provide reliable AI services that can positively impact businesses and consumers now and in the future.”
Sound Ventures’ AI Fund will operate and invest alongside its existing early-stage funds. The company said it has been investing in AI since its inception.
“We believe that this moment in history will dictate the trajectory of this technology,” Effie Epstein, Sound Ventures’ managing partner, said in a statement. “Our team is well positioned to continue investing in, and supporting, exceptional founders that are thoughtfully shaping the future through artificial intelligence.”
