French luxury tycoon Arnault sets sights on AI investment? Family office accelerates bets on tech startups

According to data provided by the private wealth intelligence platform Fintrx, Bernard Arnault, the founder and CEO of the world's largest luxury goods group LVMH, is betting on a series of artificial intelligence startups through his family office Aglaé Ventures.

It is reported that as of 2024, Aglaé Ventures has made five investments related to artificial intelligence, with a total investment of over $300 million in these AI companies, although the specific amounts are unknown.

Among them, the largest AI investment by Aglaé Ventures this year is a French startup company H, which is dedicated to achieving full artificial general intelligence. H, formerly known as Holistic AI, was founded by former employees of Google's DeepMind AI department. Other investors include well-known venture capital firm Accel Partners and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

In May, media reports indicated that H raised $220 million in initial funding from multiple billionaires and venture capitalists, pledging to build the next generation of powerful artificial intelligence tools, a "super AI" that can be applied to a wide range of tasks, with a company valuation of $370 million.

In addition, Aglaé Ventures this year also participated in a $25 million seed round financing for Lamini, a California-based startup building enterprise AI applications, a $12 million Series A financing for Proxima, an AI-driven digital marketing company based in New York, a $27 million seed round financing for Borderless AI, a Canadian human resources management platform, in collaboration with financial services giant Susquehanna, a $43 million financing for the French AI image editor Photoroom, as well as investments in the California-based blockchain company Sonarverse and the ADHD tutoring service provider Shimmer.

Data shows that since 2017, Aglaé Ventures has made a total of 153 investments, with 53 in the technology sector, 17 in consumer goods, 13 in business services, and 12 in financial services, with a recent increase in investments in the AI field. The venture capital firm has also invested in digital health platform Noom, music creation app World Music Media, and has participated in multiple rounds of financing for the French refurbished electronics marketplace Back Market and the French AI photo creation company Meero.

According to the Aglaé Ventures website, this global technology venture capital firm focusing on early and growth-stage investments has been an early investor in several well-known tech companies in their early stages, such as Airbnb, Lyft, Netflix, Slack, and music streaming newcomer Spotify. Some analysts believe this is because Bernard Arnault himself is a tech enthusiast, having invested in 75 startups in the 1990s

Analysts also believe that the "pairing" of billionaires with popular tech companies makes sense from a purely investment perspective, as startups urgently need funding. Arnault's involvement makes things even more interesting because "as a leader in the luxury industry, this billionaire has always been an advocate for the opposite side of artificial intelligence: craftsmanship, retro brands, and human creativity":

It is said that Arnault once teased Steve Jobs, saying that the champagne from his brand would outlast the iPhone.

However, in May of this year, LVMH Group awarded the 2024 Innovation Prize to FancyTech, a Chinese AI tech company focused on short video algorithm models. This company's generative AI uses 3D product models and creative briefs to automatically generate commercial videos. It has collaborated on e-commerce and marketing with multiple brands under LVMH. Arnault believes this will be a springboard for the transformation of the luxury industry.

Some speculate that luxury tycoons investing in AI startups will not only benefit their companies with operational efficiency improvements such as "retail optimization," "predicting labor demand," and "optimizing daily schedules," but also help cultivate the next generation of successful entrepreneurs, who may all become loyal elite users of the LVMH Group.

According to the real-time Forbes billionaire list, as of Monday morning, August 19th Eastern Time, Arnault's net worth is approximately $188.6 billion. In the past few days of LVMH's stock price surge, he has gained $4.54 billion, surpassing Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg to become the world's third-richest person again. Zuckerberg's net worth has decreased by about $1 billion to $184.7 billion.

On Monday, in the "Eleven Arhats" of European stocks, LVMH Group rose by about 2.5%, leading the way with a cumulative increase of over 6% in four consecutive days. The majority of the Arnault family's wealth is concentrated in the LVMH Group, with the family owning about 48% of the shares and controlling 64% of the voting rights.