The 2025 AI economy is no longer shaped by hundreds of venture firms — it’s shaped by the same ~10 names that appear on almost every meaningful AI cap table.
These firms don’t just pick winners — they create the power-law that turns technical advantage into market dominance.
If you want to understand where AI is going next, follow these firms.
Their co-investment network forms the real map of the AI frontier.

For weekly structural analysis of these dynamics, including unicorn creation, investor flywheels, and market concentration, see:
https://businessengineer.ai/p/this-week-in-business-ai-the-2025

THE PATTERN: A CONSOLIDATION OF POWER

The most arresting fact from the data:

~10 venture firms dominate over 60 percent of AI unicorn capital and have backed more than 80 AI unicorns.

This is not a loose cluster. It is a highly stable power structure.

Across nearly every layer of the AI stack — foundation models, inference infra, dev tools, vertical market leaders — the same names reappear:

a16z
Sequoia
Lightspeed
Thrive
Index
Benchmark
Founders Fund
Accel
GV
Tiger Global

They are not competing across the full market. They are specializing, forming co-investment alliances, accelerating best-in-class teams, and shutting out late-stage entrants.

This is not just investor behavior.
It’s a structural pattern in how the AI market compounds.

WHY THIS MATTERS: THE FLYWHEEL EFFECT

AI is a power-law market.
Winner-take-most dynamics dominate:

Foundation models
Inference infrastructure
Vertical specialists
Healthcare-AI convergence
AI-native developer tools

The kingmakers amplify this dynamic.

They run the same flywheel:

Win the big AI deal — early entry into future category leaders.
Pull in technical and go-to-market expertise — recruiting, integrations, infra access.
Win subsequent AI deals — reputation, access, and network accelerate.
Repeat — capital and credibility concentrate further.

This feedback loop is strengthening, not weakening.

In other words:

The more these firms win, the harder it becomes for others to even get on the field.

THE KINGMAKERS — AI’S POWER BROKERS

Let’s break down the strategic positioning of each cluster.

1. a16z — The Frontier Layer

a16z has engineered the broadest AI footprint:

OpenAI
Mistral
Ayscale
Thinking Machines
Glean

Focus:
Foundation models + core infra + early monopolies.

They aim to own the “intelligence layer” — the scarce resource everything else depends on.

2. Sequoia — The System Architect

In many ways the opposite strategy:
Sequoia spreads across the entire AI value chain:

Harvey
Glean
Scale AI
Character
Hugging Face

Focus:
Full-stack positioning + multi-stage domination.

Sequoia optimizes for control points that compound over years.

3. Lightspeed — The Applied Infrastructure Layer

Lightspeed is the most structurally disciplined around:

Anthropic
Mistral
Cohere
Together AI

Focus:
Inference + infra + applied orchestration.

They bank on where scale actually monetizes.

4. Thrive — Category Acceleration

Thrive shows up in the fastest-growing, highest-demand segments:

OpenAI
Anthropic
Perplexity
Figma (AI-native design ecosystem)

Focus:
Growth-stage hyperscaling.

They lean into companies that convert AI into mass adoption.

5. The Selective Specialists:

Benchmark

Character
Inflection
Focus: early-stage discipline → high-conviction bets.

Founders Fund

Anthropic
Anduril
Focus: contrarian layers with geopolitical significance.

Index

Cohere
Mistral
Focus: US + EU dominance + cross-geography leverage.

Accel

Vercel
Miro
Focus: multi-stage global plays.

GV

Anthropic
Runway
Focus: applied AI ecosystems that integrate directly into Google platforms.

Tiger Global

Focus: hyper-growth categories; maximal speed.

THE CO-INVESTMENT NETWORK — THE REAL POWER STRUCTURE

When you map these firms, the most important signal emerges:

They co-invest with each other constantly.

This creates:

1. Deal Access

Founders with a16z or Sequoia already secured become automatically qualified for capital from Lightspeed, Thrive, or Index.

2. Valuation Power

The same players bidding on the same companies drives valuations from $300M → $3B → $10B in months.

3. Portfolio Synergies

Portfolio companies:

share infrastructure
hire from each other
integrate APIs
anchor enterprise distribution
co-sell into regulated industries

The result:

The investor oligopoly mirrors the AI-company oligopoly.
The structure is identical on both sides of the cap table.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR FOUNDERS, INVESTORS, AND OPERATORS

1. For Founders — Target These Firms First

Strategic fundraising is no longer shotgun.
It is precision targeting.

Getting one of the kingmakers on your cap table is not just capital.
It is permission, distribution, and acceleration.

And bluntly:

If you don’t have one of these firms on your cap table, you’re competing with their portfolio companies.

And losing.

2. For VCs — Co-power or Specialize

Smaller firms face a binary choice:

Co-invest with the oligopoly, or
Specialize deeply in a vertical (e.g., healthcare AI, defense AI, industrial AI)

The middle — generalist, early-stage, broad theses — is dead.

3. For LPs — Access Is Everything

LPs are no longer just capital allocators.
They are fighting for access to the best GP pipelines.

The best AI deals are not competitive.
They are allocated.

4. For the Market — Concentration Will Intensify

Every cycle, power-law markets consolidate further.
AI is no exception.

Expect:

fewer funds controlling more capital
more unicorns tied to the same firms
deeper co-investment flywheels
stronger barriers to new entrants

The oligopoly becomes self-reinforcing.

THE STRATEGIC TAKEAWAY

The 2025 AI market is not shaped by technology alone.
It is shaped by a network of recurring names who have become the gravitational centers of capital, talent, and deal flow.

If you understand their flywheels, you understand the market.

For weekly breakdowns of these dynamics — new unicorns, investor movements, vertical power-laws — see:
https://businessengineer.ai/p/this-week-in-business-ai-the-2025

This is the new architecture of the AI economy.