A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Eric Schmidt, the billionaire former CEO of Google , has become known as “the AI whisperer” for his widespread predictions and warnings about artificial intelligence. Behind the scenes, however, Schmidt’s family office has been making dozens of bets on private AI startups. Schmidt’s family office, called Hillspire, has made investments in 22 private AI firms since 2019, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by Fintrx, a private wealth intelligence platform. Last year alone, Hillspire made 13 investments in AI startups, which accounted for more than three-quarters of all of Schmidt’s startup investments. The dollar amounts of the investments aren’t disclosed, so it’s unclear how much Schmidt has invested in each company. And some of the investments were follow-on rounds for the same companies. Yet the funding rounds for the 22 companies that Schmidt has invested since 2019 total more than $5 billion, according to Fintrx. Schmidt’s bets include some of the largest AI startups, including Anthropic, H (formerly known as Holistic AI) and SandboxAQ. They also include smaller companies, like Swiss startup Optiml as well as Altera and Inworld AI. Schmidt has become one of the leading evangelists of artificial intelligence, having written one of the defining books on the technology, “The Age of AI,” with Henry Kissinger and Daniel Huttenlocher. He is also a leading voice on AI’s potential perils. Schmidt said in an interview late last year with ABC News that when a computer can learn and do everything, “that’s a dangerous point. When the system can self-improve, we need to seriously think about unplugging it.” Forbes reported this month that Hillspire is also funding an AI startup focused on video and social media, called Hooglee. The website for Hooglee said it’s “on a mission to change the way people connect through the power of AI and video.” While Schmidt has been a longtime tech leader, he’s not alone among family offices in taking an interest in AI. A UBS survey showed that artificial intelligence is now the top investment theme for family offices. More than three-quarters, or 78%, of family offices surveyed plan to invest in AI in the next two to three years — the most for any category, according to the UBS Global Family Office Report. Here’s the list of Hillspire’s AI startup investments: Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that Eric Schmidt’s family office made an investment in a company now known as H, formerly known as Holistic AI.
Eric Schmidt, former chairman and CEO at Google.
John Lamparski | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Eric Schmidt, the billionaire former CEO of Google, has become known as “the AI whisperer” for his widespread predictions and warnings about artificial intelligence.
