Paradigm has closed a $1.2 billion fund targeting artificial intelligence and robotics deals, marking a significant shift for the firm from its crypto roots.
The new fund is Paradigm's third venture vehicle and follows years of signals from Matt Huang that AI developments were too interesting to ignore. The firm already backed Zipline, a drone delivery company, and True Anomaly, a space defense startup, both outside the crypto space.
Paradigm has not stepped away from crypto entirely, co-leading a $175 million round in Morpho, a decentralized lending protocol, and leading a seed round for M1X Global, a company building infrastructure for tokenized US Treasuries. The firm's existing technical team will evaluate AI and robotics deals rather than building a separate group.
The move signals that even well-capitalized, crypto-native firms see limited room to deploy larger funds inside crypto alone right now. Paradigm manages roughly $12.7 billion across its funds, with the 2021 vehicle raising $2.5 billion, the largest crypto-focused fund at the time.