Opto Investments Raises $40 Million for AI Infrastructure Venture Fund
Opto Investments has closed its Opto Artificial Intelligence Early Stage Venture Fund at $40 million, marking what Opto said is the first proprietary thematic vehicle the platform has brought to market since closing a series of registered investment adviser partnerships over the past year.
The fund, which launched in January 2024, was offered via private placement to accredited investors and distributed exclusively through Opto’s RIA and family office partner channels. It takes a multi-strategy approach combining fund-of-funds positions with direct investments and co-investments, targeting foundational AI infrastructure – energy, compute, and developer tooling – rather than the large-cap AI names that dominate public market indices.
Direct and co-investment holdings include xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk; Epirus, a defense technology firm focused on directed energy systems; ExoWatt, which builds modular thermal energy systems for high-demand power users including data centers; and Higgsfield, a browser-based generative AI video platform. Portfolio fund holdings include Fusion Fund IV, Neo Fund 4.0, and Zero Prime Ventures Fund II, each targeting early-stage companies with technical differentiation in AI, data infrastructure, and enterprise software.
“We built our AI Fund to give our partner RIAs’ clients exposure to the companies actually putting AI to work,” said Matt Malone, head of investment management at Opto Investments. “These RIAs came to us seeking a smarter way to access AI – not just the largest, high-valuation names everyone already knows.”
Emmanuel Uwakwe, portfolio manager at Opto Investments, said the fund’s diligence process targets less visible parts of the AI stack. “Our diligence process is designed to find the companies solving the harder, less obvious problems across the stack: energy, compute, cybersecurity, tooling, orchestration, and the vertical applications that turn intelligence into output,” Uwakwe added.
Stuart Katz, chief investment officer at Opto-partner firm Robertson Stephens, said the platform lowers the infrastructure barrier for firms building private markets programs. “Achieving scalable, differentiated exposure to private markets requires institutional-quality infrastructure,” Katz said. “The AI Fund is a great example. Opto enhances the effectiveness and productivity of an established investment team and serves as a particularly valuable partner for firms without sophisticated internal resources.”
San Francisco-based Opto was founded by Joe Lonsdale and operates as a technology platform helping RIAs and family offices build and manage proprietary private markets funds. The AI fund close follows a series of RIA partnership announcements over the past year: Fidelis Capital announced a partnership with Opto in January 2026, Quotient Wealth Partners and TritonPoint Wealth joined the platform in December 2025, and Venturi Private Wealth announced its Opto partnership in May 2025.
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