- Peak XV is pivoting toward AI infrastructure and expanding into the U.S., building a Silicon Valley team and backing startups like Supabase, Atomicwork and Hightouch.
- The firm is raising its first post-Sequoia fund of about $1.2–$1.4B, focused on early-stage AI/infra alongside India and Southeast Asia core investing.
- It has returned roughly $1.2B via IPOs and secondary/block sales in portfolio companies including Zomato, Truecaller and Go Digit.
- The U.S. push and capital-intensive infra bets add execution, regulatory and internal stability risk amid notable partner and staff departures.
Read More
Peak XV is positioning itself at a key inflection point in the global AI race by deliberately shifting attention toward the infrastructure layer, especially in Silicon Valley and the broader U.S. tech ecosystem. This represents more than just geographical expansion: it reflects a strategic effort to participate in—and profit from—the foundational systems (compute, data infrastructure, tooling, IP) that support frontier AI models and cross-border startups. The firm’s earlier constraints under Sequoia’s unified structure—particularly regulatory friction and conflicts among Sequoia’s China, U.S., and India arms—have largely eased since the split in mid-2023, enabling Peak XV to deploy capital directly into U.S. startups and fund relationships,.
Theraise of a new, early-stage fund signals both confidence and calculates risk. At $1.2-$1.4 billion, this vehicle is roughly half the size of its prior pooled fund activity under the Sequoia umbrella. This suggests a tighter focus on seed to growth stages rather than large growth-stage allocations. Infrastructure plays are inherently capital intensive and often have longer gestation periods; Peak XV’s strategy now needs to balance patience with liquidity, especially considering LP expectations.
Exit performance has been a key lever for Peak XV’s credibility as a standalone investor. Since its split, it has realized ~$1.2 billion in exits through IPOs and block/secondary transactions involving notable Indian companies. The timing is advantageous: India’s public markets have opened up, enabling higher valuations and liquidity for companies previously locked in private/secondary markets. These exits help justify Peak XV’s valuation and ability to raise its independent fund, and also provide cash flow back to LPs sooner than typical in infrastructure investments.
Still, the move comes with trade-offs. Establishing a U.S. presence exposes Peak XV to different competitive dynamics, cost of operations, regulatory oversight (e.g. SEC, export controls), and the necessity to source or build technical infra supply chains. Internal risks are also clear: several senior partners have departed recently, suggesting possible misalignments in strategy, compensation, or culture. Furthermore, infrastructure investments often lag returns, and if AI hype fades or regulatory/talent bottlenecks emerge, investment momentum could stall.
Strategic implications for stakeholders:
- For PE/VC investors: there’s growing justification for focusing on the infrastructure layer of AI—compute, tools, IP, developer platforms—rather than only frontier models or consumer apps. Winning infra plays often deliver recurring revenue and defensibility.
- For founders: those building infrastructural technologies (e.g. data orchestration, cloud-native compute, codified toolchains) should increasingly look beyond local capital and tap global investors; U.S. expansion is now more accessible for India/SEA-born companies targeting global markets,.
- For LPs: whilst infrastructure and U.S. exposure increase diversification, due diligence around burn rates, competitive moats, regulatory risk is crucial — as Peak XV will need to show not just deal count but meaningful infrastructure IP and margin-generating capacity.
Open questions underpinning Peak XV’s strategy include:
- How will they structure infrastructure investments that require megascale capital and long timelines (e.g. data center or AI hardware supply)?
- Will the U.S. team become a significant share of deployment, or merely a beachhead / signal for global inbound-outsourced models?
- What is their differentiation vs. other global AI infra investors like Sequoia U.S., a16z, Tiger Global, CoreWeave, etc.?
- Can Peak XV sustain internal cohesion and senior talent when operating across geographies with differing returns profiles and risk tolerances?
Supporting Notes
- Peak XV is back home in Silicon Valley, hiring Arnav Sahu from Y Combinator to lead U.S. investments; also building a six-member U.S. team. Recent U.S. direct investments include Supabase, Atomicwork, Hightouch.
- Peak XV is raising a $1.2-$1.4 billion fund aimed at early-stage investing post-split; its previous fund (under Sequoia) was $2.85 billion with growth-stage allocations reduced last year.
- Since separating from Sequoia, Peak XV has realised ~$1.2 billion in exits via IPOs and secondary share sales from companies such as Zomato, Go Digit, Mamaearth, Truecaller, Five Star Business Finance, Indigo Paints.,
- Internal leadership churn: general partners Shailesh Lakhani and Abheek Anand resigned in early 2025; the firm has seen 20+ departures—including heads of marketing, policy, strategy, and early stage operations.
- India and Southeast Asia remain core for new fund, but the infrastructure bets are increasingly cross-border, with AI infrastructure plays in the U.S. being pursued both via direct investment and through fund investments between $1 million and $10 million tickets.