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On a dusty stretch of desert outside Phoenix, Arizona, a skyline of steel frames and clean-room towers is rising. Not for apartments or office towers, but for a “city within a city” devoted to making the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the linchpin of global chip supply, is pouring tens of billions into three new fabrication plants here, with help from the CHIPS and Science Act. The stakes are far larger than jobs or tax revenue. In a world where the tiniest chips control everything from F-35 fighters to the servers that train large language models, bringing this capacity onto U.S. soil is as much about deterrence as it is about commerce. As TSMC founder Morris Chang bluntly put it, “Globalization is almost dead. Free trade is almost dead.”

Join Alumni Ventures’ Managing Partner David Shapiro for an exclusive investor update on Blue Ivy Ventures, a fund built for the Yale community and its extended network.

The Problem With the Story We’ve Been Sold Silicon Valley loves a certain image: the hoodie-wearing college dropout who changes the world before being allowed to rent car. There’s even a fellowship that pays kids under 23 to quit school and start companies. The message? Younger is better. Here’s the problem: it’s just not true. Middle-aged founders crush young ones when it comes to building high-growth companies — it’s not even close. And I’m one of them. At the age of 49, I started Alumni Ventures, recently valued as a unicorn.*

When we founded Alumni Ventures in 2014, people thought the idea was crazy. We were asked “Why bother with retail investors, too small and too fragmented to matter? Collecting many small checks? Sounds like a nightmare.” But we believed that a community working together — with networks, discipline, and rigor — could achieve more in venture investing than any of us could alone. A decade later, that conviction has fueled our growth and put us on lists alongside the world’s leading VC firms.

Join Alumni Ventures Executive Partner Greg Baker for an update on the 2022 Total Access Fund and Growth Fund 2 portfolios.

Join Alumni Ventures Executive Partner Greg Baker for an update on the 2021 Total Access Fund and Growth Fund 1 portfolios.

A 10th grader opens her phone after practice. For pennies a day, an AI tutor watches her solve two algebra steps, spots the exact misconception, and rewrites the next problem on the fly — no waiting, no shame, faster progress. Now put that next to the classroom we’ve known since 1925: one teacher, 30 students, one pace. That gap represents the once-in-a-century opportunity to rewire a $6 trillion global education and training market with AI. Alumni Ventures wants to invite you to be part of that opportunity. We’re launching the AV Education 2.0 Community & Syndicate so you can back the first winners across K‑12, higher‑ed, workforce, and language learning to take advantage of this AI revolution.

What does it mean to be T-shaped in a venture-driven, entrepreneurial team? In this video, Keaton Nankivil breaks it down. He explains how the best team members balance broad curiosity with deep focus — like switching between a spotlight and a laser. At AV, if you’ve got a strong point of view that aligns with the mission, you’re encouraged to chase it. But success comes from knowing where to direct your energy — whether it’s a market, theme, or community. It’s all about owning your focus and driving impact.

At Alumni Ventures, we invest in the builders shaping the next generation of transformative technology. When we first evaluated Cohere, we weren’t just looking at growth metrics — we were examining a differentiated approach in one of the most competitive markets in tech. This is the story of why we backed a company that’s quietly become one of the fastest-growing names in AI.

In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find that a petri dish of Staphylococcus cultures had been contaminated — an accident that led to the discovery of penicillin. Ninety years later, in 2018, Japanese scientists accidentally altered an enzyme and found it could break down plastic significantly faster. What connects these seemingly unrelated moments isn’t meticulous adherence to the scientific method. These “happy accidents” weren’t born from controlled, procedural experimentation. Instead, they reflect how scientific breakthroughs often emerge from veering off course, driven not by protocol, but by the curiosity, intuition, and creativity that define human discovery.

As AI and automation dominate tech headlines, a powerful countertrend is emerging: a growing demand for real-world, human-first experiences. Alumni Ventures’ Sports & Humans First Syndication Club backs entrepreneurs building platforms that foster community, identity, and embodied connection  —  not as a rejection of technology, but as its highest purpose. From wellness and skill-sharing to sports and third spaces, this fund invests in scalable, culture-driven solutions that enhance what makes us uniquely human.

Why the most disruptive AI startups aren’t selling tools to organizations — they’re replacing them.