Bernard Arnault, founder and CEO of luxury goods group LVMH and the fourth-richest person in the world, is reportedly making multiple investments in artificial intelligence (AI) companies.
Arnault’s family office, Aglae Ventures, has made five AI-related investments in 2024, CNBC reported on Monday (August 19), citing data provided exclusively by private wealth intelligence platform Fintrex.
According to the report, these investments include French startup H, formerly known as Holistic AI, California-based startup Lamini that focuses on enterprise AI applications, New York-based AI-powered digital marketing company Proxima, Toronto-based talent management platform Borderless AI, and France-based AI image editor Photoroom.
The amount Aglae has invested in these companies has not been disclosed, according to the report.
In its previous AI-related investments, the family office participated in four funding rounds for Paris-based Meero, an AI-powered photo creation company, between 2017 and 2019, according to the report.
According to the report, Aglae has made 153 investments since 2017, 53 of which were in technology companies.
According to the report, Arnault has a long history of investing in successful tech startups: his family office invested in Netflix in 1999, Spotify in 2014 and Airbnb in 2015.
In July, U.S. venture funding was reported to have reached its highest quarterly total in two years, driven by large investments in AI companies.
Venture capital (VC) investment in the second quarter was $55.6 billion, up 47% from the $37.8 billion raised by U.S. startups in the first quarter.
AI-related investments in the second quarter included $6 billion raised by Elon Musk’s xAI and $1.1 billion raised by CoreWeave.
Big tech companies are also increasing their investments in AI.
Photoroom, one of the AI companies Aglae has invested in, told PYMNTS in July that it has seen more than 150 million downloads since its 2019 launch.
The company partnered with Genesis Cloud to test whether green computing can keep up with the demands of cutting-edge AI development.
“We believe innovation doesn’t have to come at the expense of sustainability,” Photoroom co-founder and chief technology officer Elliot Andres told PYMNTS. “As industry leaders, it’s our duty to ensure the decisions we make lead to the right choices for the environment and model the behavior we want to see in the industry.”
