Crypto funding agency Paradigm is searching for to lift $1.5 billion for a brand new fund that may spend money on firms in AI, robotics and different frontier applied sciences, in response to the Wall Road Journal.
Paradigm will proceed to spend money on crypto firms, in response to sources acquainted with the state of affairs, however it should use its present technical funding staff to take a look at offers in frontier tech firms, they mentioned.
San Francisco–primarily based Paradigm has $12.7 billion in belongings underneath administration, in response to the most recent regulatory filings.
It launched its flagship $2.5 billion fund in November 2021, which was the most important crypto fund in historical past on the time. It publicly introduced its third fund in 2024 — an $850 million enterprise fund centered on early-stage crypto initiatives.
In keeping with the WSJ’s sources, the agency’s managers determined they didn’t wish to be restricted in ways in which might trigger them to overlook out on enticing offers.
There may be additionally overlap between crypto and AI, reminiscent of agentic funds, or transactions made by autonomous AI brokers, the individual mentioned.
Paradigm exploring AI as early as 2023
Paradigm acknowledged it had been “tinkering” with AI and its convergence with crypto as early as three years in the past.
In 2023, Paradigm was seen eradicating Web3 and crypto-specific language from its web site, prompting some speculators to counsel it was already pivoting from crypto to AI.
Matt Huang, the co-founder and managing companion of Paradigm, denied on the time that the web site modifications mirrored a shift away from crypto, however acknowledged that the staff had been exploring AI.
Supply: Matt Huang
In a lengthier tweet weeks later, Huang mentioned that whereas “we’ve by no means been extra enthusiastic about crypto and proceed to speculate throughout all levels,” the “developments in AI are too attention-grabbing to disregard.”
“It appears stylish to border crypto vs AI as a zero-sum competitors. However we don’t purchase it. Each are attention-grabbing and can have loads of overlap. We’re excited to proceed exploring,” he mentioned.
Earlier this month, Paradigm and OpenAI launched EVMbench, a brand new benchmark evaluating how totally different AI fashions can detect and patch safety vulnerabilities present in sensible contracts.
AI made up greater than half of all VC funding in 2025
In 2025, enterprise capital investments in AI corporations amounted to $258.7 billion, accounting for 61% of all VC funding and doubling its share from 2022, in response to OECD.
VC funding for generative AI corporations made up 14% of all AI enterprise capital investments, with corporations in america attracting the most important share of VC funding.
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