Today we're announcing over $9B in capital for a new family of funds — our largest raise in 25 years. AI is rewriting the rules. We're backing the founders building what comes next.

Conversations about humanity's road to superintelligence are finally taking centre stage. Not just the technology. A shift in thinking, a collective willingness to take seriously ideas that were, until recently, considered fringe. Move 37 was an early glimpse. In 2016, AlphaGo played a move so unexpected it brought a professional Go player to tears. A machine had found something humans hadn't in thousands of years of play. Joining David Silver at @Founders_Forum this week was energising. Not just for what he's building at @IneffableLabs , but for how seriously he takes the responsibility of building it safely so the benefits reach everyone. David, it was a privilege to share the stage with you and am looking forward to partnering with Ineffable on this journey.

AI advancement is buzzing. What do the leaders behind the foundational models have to say about what’s being built? Yesterday, Lightspeed hosted a Builder’s Breakfast at our London HQ alongside @GoogleDeepMind and @GoogleCloud. With numerous founders present, the conversations provided a meaningful view of what’s on the horizon for companies building in AI. Lightspeed Partner @antoine_moyroud was joined by Clément Farabet (@clmt), VP of AI Engineering at Google DeepMind, and Kathryn Van Nuys (@KathrynVanNuys), Global Director of Venture Capital & Startup Investor Ecosystem at Google Cloud. We were also joined by Google team members Erin Schoch, Umar Noor, and Nikao Yang. Some key points among attendees: 1. The difficulty of resolving the “research-to-production gap” in the industry, and the importance of getting the incentive structures right early. 2. The edge is getting smarter faster than most people realize. The gap between frontier and on-device is closing rapidly, and that changes the company-building calculus. 3. Technical founders should back themselves when capable. The tools exist, and the velocity is there. The old playbook of finding a commercial co-founder is being rewritten. 4. AGI, as we know it, isn't a future event. It's already here, just not evenly distributed yet. Thank you to Google DeepMind and Google Cloud for co-hosting the event and to everyone who attended. These conversations are shaping the road ahead for the AI era, and we can’t wait to see where it leads.

most ai news isn't worth your time. you basically have to be unemployed to stay on top of it. there's just too much. the cycle never sleeps, and buried in the noise each week, there are a few things that actually matter. that's the premise of Lightwork, our new show. every week we make coffee, sit down, and cut seven days of ai and venture down to what's worth knowing. we do the heavy lifting. you get the light work. episode one drops soon. the second coffee is for someone you might know... if you guess right i'll buy you coffee ;)

2 American pilots were stranded near the Straits of Hormuz this week. It's been said by many now, but I am so proud that one of @Saronic ’s unmanned boats saved them. This was the first rescue of its kind. After an Army Apache Helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz. The 2-person crew spent ~2 hours in the water before a Saronic Corsair reached them, a 24-foot autonomous vessel operating with no crew aboard. It brought both pilots safely back to shore. In the past, recovering downed aircrew has always meant sending more service members into harm's way. An uncrewed boat just did it instead. This is a truly remarkable moment for American defense technology. Not only is defense tech enabling the DoW to fight and win wars, it's saving lives and puts less of America's sons and daughters at risk. As someone who used to serve our country this is insanley personal. I know it is for @MavrookasD too. Proud to have supported Dino, Vib, Rob and the Saronic Technologies team. @lightspeedvp @ravi_lsvp

Congratulations @nifleisher @liamail @cc_jarryd and the rest of the @sandstonehq team! We at @lightspeedvp are honored to be behind a spectacular team redefining how in house legal is performed. DM if you’re interested in joining! cc @guruchahal

AI has a unique opportunity to revitalize stale outdated workflows when it comes to in-house legal. @nifleisher noticed that some in-house legal teams faced resource constraints and an overflow of administrative tasks. He built @sandstonehq to utilize AI for corporate legal teams. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Nick alongside @lisabethhan on The Investment Memo. We broke down what the problem motivating Sandstone looked like and their unique team developing the solution. Thank you for joining us this week, Nick. We at @lightspeedvp look forward to seeing how your goals for Sandstone take shape.

“I think legal teams and lawyers will become more strategic, more generalist, and more orchestrators.” @nifleisher, Co-Founder & CEO of Sandstone joins @lisabethhan and @guruchahal on why AI means “a lot more deal volume,” “a lot more things to review,” and “a lot more AI slop to review.” From The Investment Memo

.@nifleisher (Co-Founder & CEO @sandstonehq) why the legal tech category is finally ready for better software: “I was surprised there were tools with 99% adoption, but the UX was still very poor… No one said, ‘I love the software I use every day.’” “Lawyers are looking for tools that make them excited to use software. ChatGPT and Claude showed people some of the magic software can have, and now they want that for their function.” —The Investment Memo with @guruchahal & @lisabethhan

In-house legal is often heavy on administrative tasks and light on resources. @sandstonehq is an AI platform that’s working to target problems facing corporate legal teams. CEO and co-founder @nifleisher recently joined @guruchahal and @lisabethhan on The Investment Memo to talk more about the product. Nick explained, “There were no platforms that people really loved. No one was excited to go use a piece of software.” He continued: “We’ve had lawyers say, ‘You’ve made contract review fun again.’” Thank you to Nick for joining us on the podcast. 0:00 Welcome, Nick Fleisher! 2:15 What Is In-House Legal? 4:52 The Massive Market Opportunity 7:33 Scaling Customer Demand & Legal Ops 8:41 Nick Fleisher's Journey from McKinsey to Founder 16:51 Why Sandstone Started with Workflow, Not Contract AI 20:12 How In-House Legal Differs from Law Firms 21:20 The Roadmap for AI-Powered Legal Teams 23:30 Building Defensibility in Legal Tech 26:44 Where Sandstone Fits in the AI Ecosystem 27:46 Why Traditional CLMs Are Failing 30:43 Why Sandstone Chose Lightspeed 33:30 The Long-Term Vision for Sandstone 35:52 How AI Will Change Lawyers in 10 Years 37:30 The Future of In-House Legal