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Hong Kong billionaire family office backs $100m AI fund
Hong Kong-based family office VMS Group is backing a US$100 million AI venture fund launched by 3C AGI Partners, founded by former SenseTime executive Esther Wong.
The fund aims to raise the full amount by March, after securing US$50 million in a first close in November, and has already invested from an earlier 2023 fund.
The new fund will focus on AI infrastructure, such as hardware and data centers, avoiding the app space due to concerns over overvaluation.
While the initial fund concentrated on US companies, the new vehicle will adopt a broader “US Plus” strategy, including North American and global startups, to diversify away from China amid geopolitical tensions.
🔗 Source: Bloomberg
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
A rare blend of Wall Street and AI expertise powers this new fund
- Founder Esther Wong spent more than 20 years at firms such as J.P. Morgan, then helped raise over $5 billion at SenseTime 1.
- She says 3C AGI Partners will put money into costly AI plumbing like chips, servers, and data centers, not consumer apps 2.
- The portfolio already includes Synchron, a brain–computer interface (BCI) company that links the brain to computers, plus chipmakers and computing firms Cerebras and Groq 3.
A shift in AI investing shows capital flowing to hardware and away from China
- 3C calls this a picks-and-shovels approach, favoring hardware, compute, and data center buildouts while skipping apps it sees as expensive 2.
- Its “US Plus” plan spreads bets beyond China into North America and other regions as US-China tensions rise.
- That stance may suit deep-tech teams building specialized chips or next-generation data centers, since these projects often need larger and longer-term financing than software rounds 2.
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