que paso
Forbes Australia reported that Blackbird closed a $1.05 billion fund, its sixth and the largest ever raised by an Australian venture-capital firm. General partner Samantha Wong said the firm remains interested in AI but is cautious about startups applying AI to individual professions, and expects to increase its focus on infrastructure and semiconductors.
Forbes Australia reported on August 26 that Blackbird had raised $1.05 billion from institutional investors including Morgan Stanley’s private-asset arm, Schroders and Adams Street Partners. The fund is Blackbird’s sixth and narrowly exceeds the firm’s $1.035 billion 2022 fund, making it, according to the outlet, the largest venture-capital fund ever raised in Australia. The article also says Blackbird received investment from Australia’s sovereign wealth fund and superannuation funds HESTA, Aware Super and Hostplus. These funding details were reported by Forbes Australia and were not independently confirmed in the source material.
The AI-specific development is Blackbird’s investment outlook. Forbes Australia quoted general partner Samantha Wong as saying that the “low-hanging fruit” in AI had already been picked and that the firm was becoming more cautious about startups offering AI for a particular profession. Wong said Blackbird remained interested in AI, particularly in layers above the model, but saw less opportunity in businesses built around an “AI for insert profession” formula. The report presents this as a change in emphasis rather than a withdrawal from AI.
Forbes Australia reported that Blackbird has historically split investments about 70% toward software and 30% toward deep technology, and that Wong expects the firm to do more deep-tech investing during the new fund cycle. The article identifies infrastructure and semiconductors as areas of interest and names PsiQuantum, Morse Micro and Gilmour Space Technologies among Blackbird’s deep-tech holdings. It also reports that Blackbird’s largest single investment, $200 million, was made earlier this year in Baseten, a Silicon Valley AI infrastructure startup founded partly by Australians. The source does not provide the new fund’s exact target allocation or terms.
Lea la fuente principal: forbes.com.au ↗
Por qué es importante
The report provides a concrete signal about how a major venture investor is adjusting its AI strategy after years of heavy funding for application-layer startups. A shift toward infrastructure and deep technology could influence which parts of the AI economy receive capital, although the article does not independently verify Blackbird’s financial claims or provide a detailed investment allocation for the new fund.
The report matters because it records a major institutional investor reassessing where value may remain in AI. Forbes Australia describes a market in which large sums have already flowed to applications aimed at specific occupations, citing Cursor for coding, Harvey AI for legal work and Heidi for healthcare administration. Blackbird’s position is not evidence that those companies will fail, but it is a concrete example of an investor distinguishing between crowded application categories and less mature layers such as model-serving infrastructure, training systems and specialized hardware.
A greater focus on infrastructure could affect the distribution of private capital across the AI supply chain. Companies that make inference more efficient, support model training or supply specialized semiconductor technology may receive more attention from investors seeking opportunities beyond user-facing applications. Forbes Australia reported that Baseten says it lowers enterprise AI costs by improving inference efficiency and helping companies train open-source models. That description comes from the company as reported by Forbes Australia; the source supplies no independent performance testing or customer data.
The scale of the fund also gives Blackbird’s strategy practical significance for Australia’s technology ecosystem. A large pool of capital can support companies for longer development cycles, particularly in sectors such as semiconductors and other deep technologies that generally require more capital and time than software applications. Forbes Australia reported that Blackbird has returned US$1.4 billion to limited partners from US$2.1 billion deployed through 17 transactions across nine companies, with much of those returns coming from older funds. Those figures are Blackbird’s reported results, and the source does not provide audited financial statements or a full breakdown of fees, unrealized holdings or valuation methods.
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Key unknowns include how much of the new fund will go to AI-related investments, whether Blackbird’s cautious view affects other investors, and whether infrastructure and semiconductor bets produce stronger returns than profession-specific applications. Forbes Australia also reports that Blackbird has not yet had one of its unicorns complete an initial public offering.
The first issue to watch is execution. Forbes Australia reports that Blackbird expects to increase deep-tech investment, but it does not say how many new investments the firm plans to make, what portion of the $1.05 billion will target AI infrastructure or semiconductors, or whether the shift changes the firm’s software allocation. Without that information, the article shows a strategic preference rather than a measurable reallocation of capital.
Investors and founders will also be watching whether the crowded application layer becomes less attractive in practice. Wong’s comments are an assessment by one venture firm, not a market-wide finding. The article gives no comparative data on fundraising, revenue growth, customer retention or failure rates for profession-specific AI startups. It also does not establish whether infrastructure companies face less competition, lower technical risk or faster paths to revenue.
Forbes Australia reported that Blackbird remains its largest individual shareholder in Canva and is holding its remaining shares from its first fund until an initial public offering. The outlet also said the firm’s reported returns have come largely from acquisitions and sales of early investments to incoming investors, rather than from a portfolio company going public. The timing and prospects of any Canva IPO, or of an ASX listing by another Blackbird-backed company, are not established by the source and should not be treated as forecasts.
A further unknown is whether Blackbird’s international institutional backing will change the types of companies it can support or the markets in which those companies operate. Wong said the firm’s newer investors valued companies such as Heidi, Eucalyptus and Halter because they were not already held by many Silicon Valley firms. Forbes Australia did not independently verify those investors’ motivations, disclose their individual commitments or report any formal investment mandate for the new fund.
