Sequoia Capital, is making the largest bet in its history, and it is not only about software. The venture firm is committing $10bn to a strategy built around artificial intelligence and what it calls reindustrialization.
The figure is a statement in itself. At $10bn, it is the biggest investment Sequoia has made in its 54-year life, a marker of conviction from one of the most influential names in venture capital.
The strategy pairs two ideas. One half is the familiar race to back the winners of AI; the other is a bet on rebuilding the physical economy that the technology will run on.
Reindustrialization is the operative word. In practice it points to manufacturing, defence, robotics, energy and the reshoring of supply chains, the hard infrastructure that a software-obsessed industry has long neglected.
The thinking is that AI needs a body. Models are only as useful as the factories, power plants and machines they can act on, and Sequoia is betting the next fortunes are made where bits meet atoms.
