Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, has become one of the most active individual backers of frontier AI through his family office Hillspire and Innovation Endeavors. Hillspire has made 22 investments in private AI companies since 2019. His positions span frontier labs, applied deep tech and defense-adjacent autonomy.
His largest known positions are frontier labs — he joined Anthropic's Series A in May 2021 and is a seed shareholder in Mistral — pairing an AI-safety ethos with a bet that capability concentration still wins.
Through SandboxAQ (quantum + AI, which he chairs), World Labs (spatial AI) and Goodfire (interpretability), Schmidt funds the research-grade layers of the stack rather than thin wrappers.
Unusual among angels, he is a prolific backer of defense technology — Rebellion Defense, White Stork and Istari — informed by his government advisory roles, treating military AI as strategically aligned with frontier capability.
Hillspire writes family-office checks of any size into later rounds; Innovation Endeavors does classic early-stage venture. Both report to the same thesis, which is why Schmidt can appear at a Mistral seed and an Anthropic growth round.
Eric Schmidt ran Google from 2001 to 2011 and served as executive chairman until 2019. He co-founded Innovation Endeavors with Dror Berman in 2010. His AI activity is concentrated: in 2022 alone 13 of his 17 startup investments (more than three-quarters) went to AI, per data shared with CNBC by Fintrx.
Disclosed positions reported in funding announcements and press coverage, spanning frontier labs, applied deep tech and defense AI.
Backed since its Series A (May 2021, US$124.62M round); a signature Hillspire/angel position through Series H (valued US$965B, 2026).
Seed shareholder (2023); one of the few non-VC names on the European champion's cap table.
Schmidt is chairman; backed from its 2022 Google spin-out through Series F (valued US$13.9B, 2026).
Post-Transformer coding lab; participated in its US$2B NVIDIA-led Series B (2025-10, US$8B) and Series C.
Fei-Fei Li's large world model company; investor through Series E (US$5B, 2026).
Backed the startup's Series A (US$2.3B valuation, 2026).
Mechanistic interpretability startup; Series B (US$1.3B, 2026).
Participated in the open-model company's 2024 recapitalization / new investment (~US$80M).
AI for financial services research; Series A (2024) through Series D (US$2B, 2026).
Participated in the US$1.3B round alongside Microsoft and NVIDIA (2023).
Backed the French lab (formerly Holistic AI) in its US$220M seed round (2024).
Character and NPC AI platform; early investor.
Autonomous AI agents; among Hillspire's disclosed bets.
Positions and roles that predate or flank the AI portfolio.
Acquired a controlling stake and became CEO (2025); aerospace manufacturing with AI-heavy software.
Co-founded with Dror Berman (2010); portfolio across robotics, biotech, data and climate tech.
Backed since ~2019 through Series E (US$2B, 2024).
No rounds led by Eric Schmidt are in the tracker yet. Deals will appear here as they are recorded.
Two vehicles, one thesis. Hillspire, his family office, writes checks of any size into later rounds; Innovation Endeavors, the firm he co-founded with Dror Berman in 2010, does classic early-stage venture. Hence a Mistral seed shareholder position and an Anthropic line held through the US$965B Series H — the same AI conviction expressed at both ends of the capital structure.
Series A, May 2021: a US$124.62M round — years before Menlo's 2023 pre-product entry, Lightspeed's 2024 Series D lead, or Sequoia's 2026 arrival at a US$380B valuation. The H round he held through raised US$65B, roughly 500x that Series A cheque — which is what being the earliest big-name individual backer on this site's Anthropic pages is worth in sequencing terms.
A decade chairing the US National Security Commission on AI shaped it. Rebellion Defense, White Stork and Istari put military AI in a solo investor's book — a lane funds like a16z (American Dynamism) and General Catalyst (Anduril since 2017) pursue institutionally, but which Schmidt treats as strategically continuous with frontier capability, informed by the government advisory roles behind the portfolio.
Both — he chairs it. Backed from its 2022 Google spin-out through a Series F at a US$13.9B valuation (2026), SandboxAQ sits in the 'own the hard science layer' pattern alongside World Labs and Goodfire, where Schmidt funds research-grade work he also helps govern. Relativity Space is the same overlap taken further: controlling stake acquired, then the CEO seat in 2025.
That the concentration predated the ChatGPT rush: per Fintrx data shared with CNBC, more than three-quarters of his 2022 startup investments were AI, and Hillspire has made 22 private AI investments since 2019. A family office moving that early — Anthropic's Series A in 2021, Mistral's seed in 2023 — outran most dedicated AI funds on timing alone.