In the span of five days, a16z's AI infrastructure team turned two of its bets into acquisitions: SpaceX is buying Cursor, and Stripe announced it's buying OpenRouter. According to The Information, the two stakes are now worth more than $8 billion combined.
The Cursor return is the most dramatic. In 2024, a16z joined Cursor's $60 million Series A at a $400 million valuation. Now SpaceX is acquiring the company in a deal valued at $60 billion. Bloomberg has reported that a16z is Cursor's largest outside shareholder, with a stake of about 10% — worth roughly $6 billion at that price.
The timing is unusual, too. a16z only raised its first dedicated infrastructure fund in 2024 — a $1.25 billion vehicle. The Information says the Cursor and OpenRouter deals alone are enough to hand that fund's LPs (limited partners) all of their capital back, with extra profit left over. Venture fund returns usually play out on a ten-year clock.
a16z isn't slowing down. It raised another $1.7 billion infrastructure fund this year and recently added $1.1 billion earmarked specifically for AI hardware. Martin Casado, who leads the firm's AI infrastructure practice, says the share of startups he meets that are building hardware has climbed from around 5% a few years ago to nearly 20% today.