Lux Capital, a veteran venture capital firm known for backing early‑stage “frontier” technologies, has closed its largest fund ever at US$1.5 billion, marking a significant milestone in its more than two decades of investing in breakthrough science and defense tech companies.
The fund, Lux’s ninth, comes at a time when venture capital fundraising in the U.S. hit a decade low in 2025, according to PitchBook data, making the oversubscribed raise notable for both size and investor confidence.
Lux Capital was an early backer of companies that have since become leaders in rapidly evolving sectors. Among its defense technology bets, the firm invested in Anduril Industries, which was last valued at approximately US$30.5 billion, and Applied Intuition, a developer of autonomous vehicle software with Pentagon contracts and a reported US$15 billion valuation.
On the artificial intelligence front, Lux made early investments in Hugging Face, Runway AI, and MosaicML, the latter of which was acquired by Databricks for US$1.3 billion in 2023, underscoring the firm’s ability to identify high‑growth opportunities before broader market adoption.
Beyond defense and AI, Lux has seen meaningful exits in frontier health and robotics. Its investment in Recursion Pharmaceuticals, an AI‑driven drug discovery company, culminated in a public offering in 2021, while Auris Health, a surgical robotics pioneer backed by Lux, was sold to Johnson & Johnson for up to US$6 billion.
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The newly raised capital brings Lux Capital’s assets under management to about US$7 billion, reinforcing its growth trajectory as a prominent investor in hard‑science and deep tech sectors.
According to additional reporting, the fund is expected to focus on companies pursuing breakthroughs in areas such as frontier science, national security, aerospace, artificial intelligence, robotics, and advanced energy technologies. The firm has signaled its intent to continue writing checks ranging from seed levels to tens of millions of dollars for startups poised to reshape major industries.
The size of the fund and the breadth of Lux’s portfolio reflect broader trends in the venture capital landscape, where institutional investors are increasingly allocating to tech firms with strong defense, AI and dual‑use capabilities. Such technologies are gaining strategic importance amid heightened collaboration between Silicon Valley and government agencies focused on national competitiveness and security.
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With the new US$1.5 billion fund, the firm is poised to double down on frontier investments that push the boundaries of current technology and industrial applications.
