动察 Beating AI Flash: a16z's AI infrastructure team has hit two acquisitions in just five days—Cursor is being acquired by SpaceX, and Stripe has announced the acquisition of OpenRouter. According to The Information, the combined value of a16z's stakes in these two investments has exceeded $8 billion.

The return on Cursor is the most striking. In 2024, a16z participated in Cursor's $60 million Series A round, when the company was valued at just $400 million. Now, SpaceX is acquiring Cursor for $60 billion. Bloomberg previously reported that a16z is Cursor's largest external shareholder, holding approximately 10%, which would be worth about $6 billion at the acquisition price.

The speed of returns is also rare. a16z only launched its first $1.25 billion dedicated infrastructure fund in 2024. The Information notes that the Cursor and OpenRouter deals alone are enough to return the full principal to LPs (fund investors) of the relevant fund, with additional distributions on top. VC funds typically measure returns over a ten-year cycle.

a16z is now gearing up to continue betting on AI infrastructure. This year, it raised another $1.7 billion infrastructure fund, and recently added $1.1 billion specifically for AI hardware investments. Martin Casado, head of AI infrastructure, said that a few years ago only about 5% of the startups he encountered were focused on hardware, but that figure has now climbed to nearly 20%.