Investor Profile: AI Fund — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Founders researching AI Fund funding need to understand one thing first: this is not a conventional VC. Founded by AI pioneer Andrew Ng, the Mountain View-based venture studio co-founds companies with entrepreneurs from day zero, embedding its own build teams alongside founders. Backed by over $370M and supported by top-tier investors and partners including Sequoia Capital, NEA, Nikkei and AES, AI Fund works with entrepreneurs, venture funds and corporate partners to build new companies rapidly and increase their odds of success.

Thesis and focus areas

The studio's thesis is that AI adoption — not AI research — is the great value-creation opportunity, and that systematically co-building companies beats passive investing. AI Fund partners with 0-to-1 entrepreneurs at the application and software infrastructure layers of the AI stack, using foundation models to solve real problems in sectors including financial services, renewable energy, future of work, education, logistics, healthcare and developer tools. A distinctive edge: many ideas originate with corporate partners such as AES, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui and Nikkei — arriving with a real organisation, domain expertise and often a warm path to early customers already attached.

Cheque size and stage

AI Fund closed its oversubscribed second fund at approximately $190M in May 2025, building on a first fund of $175M. Its latest raise drew corporate limited partners including the AES Corporation, HP Inc., Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Corporation, QBE and TELUS Global Ventures, alongside Sequoia Capital and NEA. For founders entering through the studio's builder programme, a successful build leads to $500K–$1M in pre-seed capital at company formation, with AI Fund joining as a minor co-founder and investor.

Notable portfolio

Companies built in the studio include IrisGo (the digital butler for the AI PC era), Profitmind (an AI profit engine for retail), Workhelix (helping enterprises turn AI into productivity, co-founded with Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee), Factored (expert AI, machine learning and data engineering teams) and SpeechLab (AI-powered speech-to-speech translation and dubbing, incubated at the fund). Each venture is built around a founder with deep technical expertise in the target domain.

Team

Andrew Ng is founder and managing general partner. Warren Packard serves as partner, and Eli Chen as technology partner — Chen previously co-founded the AI governance company Credo AI and held engineering roles at Netflix and Twitter. Steve Papermaster serves as executive chairman, with Joyce Jiang and Andy Ku also partners. The studio's model puts Andrew himself “engaged throughout” each build, with weekly check-ins alongside the fund's technical and product teams.

How to apply for funding

The published route for founders is the Engineer in Residence programme, detailed at aifund.ai/build-with-us: apply through the firm's Lever posting, and if selected you spend 12 weeks full-time in the Mountain View office building a vetted idea from the studio's pipeline. The residency pays $10,000/month; if the build justifies forming a company, you become the leading candidate for the CEO or technical co-founder role with $500K–$1M in pre-seed capital. Note the constraints: it requires full-time, on-site commitment, existing US work authorisation (no visa sponsorship), and you build the studio's idea — not your own pre-existing concept. The firm also hosts regular in-person builder events in Mountain View for meeting Andrew and the team.