Seligman Ventures doubles capital to $1 billion as AI boom revives hardware bets

On September 28th, venture capital firm Seligman Ventures announced it had doubled its deployable capital to $1 billion just one year after launching its venture arm. The San Francisco-based investment firm, which is a private arm of the technology investor, had initially launched with $500 million in February 2026. Since then, Seligman Ventures has invested over $300 million across 14 ventures in AI hardware, connectivity, and cybersecurity.

The expansion of the venture fund comes after a surge in investor interest in capital-intensive hardware, following a two-decade period where Silicon Valley's returns were largely built on software. Venture investment in U.S. and Canadian startups reached a record $392 billion in the first half of 2026, with $10.7 billion going to semiconductor startups, on pace to exceed last year's total.

Seligman Ventures' managing partner, Umesh Padval, expressed that the firm did not want to miss out on the AI, cybersecurity, or datacenter train, and that the amount of deal flow they have received has been 10 to 15 times more than what they anticipated when they joined the firm. The capital increase is part of a broader push by public-market managers to reach technology companies earlier, as startups are staying private for longer periods.

Seligman Ventures operates with a barbell strategy, combining early-stage bets with late-stage and pre-IPO checks. The firm also holds six board seats and three board observer seats, reflecting its active role in the startups it invests in. Seligman Ventures' chief investment officer, Paul Wick, cited a lack of board representation, reliance on third-party deal sourcing, and team selection as lessons learned from a previous late-stage effort launched in 1997 that was wound down after the dot-com collapse.