Eric Schmidt
About Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt holds a BSE in electrical engineering from Princeton and a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley. Before Google he was CTO of Sun Microsystems and CEO of Novell. He joined Google in 2001 and was its CEO and chairman from 2001 to 2011. He then served as executive chairman of Alphabet and later as a technical advisor, a role that ended in 2020.
He co-founded the philanthropic initiative Schmidt Futures in 2017. Its scientific work was later restructured into Schmidt Sciences, launched in January 2024. In October 2021 he founded the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a non-profit initiative on AI and national security, and he chairs it.
He has been CEO of the aerospace manufacturer Relativity Space since 2025. Tracxn lists board seats at SandboxAQ and Civis Analytics. His family office, Hillspire, handles much of his investing.
Crunchbase lists 39 investments for Schmidt, with 0 lead investments and 0 exits. Tracxn counts more, at 59 companies, so totals differ by database. Neither the Crunchbase nor the Tracxn page we found gives personal check sizes.
His best-known early bet is Anthropic. He joined its $124M Series A in 2021, a round led by Jaan Tallinn. Some of his activity runs through Hillspire rather than in his own name. Fintrx data reported by CNBC in January 2025 showed Hillspire had invested in 22 private AI companies since 2019. Worth reported that Hillspire made 15 investments in 2025, most of them in AI.
Crunchbase shows 32 AI investments since 2023. They include Mistral AI, Cube AI, Gradium, Rogo, Periodic Labs, Magic, LawZero, Astrocade, Vercept, Perplexity, Imbue and World Labs.
Two AI rounds appear on the Lounge deals desk. He took part in the Anthropic Series A ($124M, May 2021) and in H Company's $220M seed round (May 2024). In September 2025, Periodic Labs announced a $300M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Schmidt was one of the individual investors in it, alongside Elad Gil, Jeff Dean and Jeff Bezos.
In October 2025, Hillspire was reported as an investor in the $650M final close of Radical Ventures' early-stage AI fund. That is a commitment to a fund, not an angel check into a company.
Public records show a heavy tilt toward AI. That includes foundation model labs (Anthropic, Mistral AI, H Company), AI for science (Periodic Labs), voice AI and applied AI products. Dealroom's breakdown of his portfolio by round has Series B and later, seed and Series A as the largest groups. He has joined seed rounds, but many of his named deals are in large, well-funded rounds.
Geographically, his deals include US and European companies. Mistral AI and H Company are French, and Worth describes one 2025 Hillspire investment as a Paris-based AI voice startup. Tracxn lists the United States and France among his investment locations.
We found no public statement from Schmidt on check size or on a formal investment thesis. Founders should treat the round sizes above as the sizes of the whole rounds, not of his checks. His public work on AI and national security through SCSP suggests an interest in how AI shapes security and competitiveness. That is our inference and is not a stated investing criterion.
- Anthropic: AI safety and research company that builds the Claude models. Schmidt joined its $124M Series A in 2021.
- H Company: Paris-based AI company. Schmidt took part in its $220M seed round in 2024.
- Periodic Labs: builds AI scientists and autonomous labs for materials discovery. Schmidt joined its $300M seed round announced in September 2025.
- Mistral AI: French AI model developer, listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Perplexity: AI search company, listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- World Labs: listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Magic: listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Imbue: listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Rogo: listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Gradium, Cube AI, LawZero, Astrocade, Vercept: also listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- crunchbase.com/person/4e01b3df-fab2-33ee-98ec-d3fc3fa2f2ed
- linkedin.com/in/eric-schmidt-02158951
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt
- cnbc.com/2025/01/21/eric-schmidts-family-office-invests-ai-startups.ht
- worth.com/family-offices-the-new-kid-on-wall-street
- familyofficehub.io/blog/eric-schmidt-family-office-invests-in-radical-
- wsgr.com/en/insights/wilson-sonsini-advises-periodic-labs-on-dollar300
- siliconangle.com/2025/10/01/periodic-labs-raises-300m-accelerate-scien
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Eric Schmidt has made 39 investments according to Crunchbase. 32 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Mistral AI, Cube AI, Gradium, Rogo and Periodic Labs.
Eric Schmidt appears in 2 AI deals tracked by the AI Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $344M. The rounds are mostly Seed and Series A, with a median round size of $220M. The most recent are H Company (Seed, $220M, May 2024) and Anthropic (Series A, $124M, May 2021).
Eric Schmidt most often invests alongside Yuri Milner, Aglaé Ventures, Motier Ventures and FirstMark Capital, and the companies they back on AI Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Eric Schmidt
Does Eric Schmidt invest in AI startups?
Yes. Crunchbase shows 32 AI investments since 2023, and CNBC reported that his family office Hillspire had backed 22 private AI companies since 2019. Examples include Anthropic, Mistral AI, Perplexity and Periodic Labs.
What is Eric Schmidt's check size?
It is not public. We found no stated check size, and the round sizes in press reports are the totals raised by each company.
What stage does Eric Schmidt invest in?
His record includes a Series A (Anthropic, 2021) and seed rounds (H Company, 2024; Periodic Labs, 2025). Dealroom also shows many Series B and later deals, so he is not limited to one stage.
What is Hillspire?
Hillspire is Eric Schmidt's family office. Press reports tie much of his recent AI investing to it, including a reported investment in the Radical Ventures AI fund.
How can founders reach Eric Schmidt?
He has a LinkedIn profile and a personal site at ericschmidt.com. We found no public pitch process or investment criteria, so a warm introduction through a shared investor or co-investor is the most realistic route.
Has Eric Schmidt led any rounds?
Crunchbase lists 0 lead investments for him. In the rounds we reviewed he took part alongside other investors, for example Jaan Tallinn's lead of the Anthropic Series A and a16z's lead of Periodic Labs.
Is Eric Schmidt an angel investor?
Yes. Eric Schmidt invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 39 investments.
What AI companies has Eric Schmidt invested in?
Eric Schmidt's AI investments include Mistral AI, Cube AI, Gradium, Rogo, Periodic Labs, Magic, LawZero and Astrocade. The 2 rounds on AI Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Eric Schmidt based?
Eric Schmidt is based in New York, United States.
What stage does Eric Schmidt invest at?
In the rounds tracked on AI Lounge, Eric Schmidt has invested at Seed and Series A, with a median round of $220M.