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Startups & Venture·September 3, 2026·1 min read

137 Ventures’ Returns Soar on SpaceX, Anduril and Cognition Bets

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An 8x net TVPI on a 2014 fund concentrated in SpaceX, Anduril, and Cognition reinforces that defense, space, and AI infra are where late-stage venture is still comfortable underwriting power-law outcomes. Founders in these lanes can expect more patient, thesis-driven capital—everyone else should assume higher bar and shorter leash.

Startups & Venture

PitchBook: 95+ investors put money into both Anthropic and OpenAI amid shifting norms; sources: Menlo, Lightspeed, and Iconiq each hold 1%-2% Anthropic stakes

Nearly 100 investors backing both Anthropic and OpenAI shows that in frontier AI, capital is indexing the category, not picking a single champion. If you’re an enterprise buyer, don’t expect your VC cap table to give you a clean signal on which lab to standardize on — build for multi-model optionality instead.