Chinese financial advisory firm Lighthouse Capital has launched a new fund targeting early-stage Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled opportunities, with a fund size of at least $50 million, according to a release on Monday.
The vehicle, Lighthouse Founders’ Fund (L2F), has hit its first close, roping in limited partners (LPs), including several internet and tech entrepreneurs and family offices.
Leo Zheng, founder and CEO of Lighthouse Capital, will serve as the founding partner of L2F. The dual-currency fund is seeking to invest in the seed and angel stage across AI and frontier technology opportunities, per the release.
Patient capital, industry resources, as well as support in building up commercial use cases will be the key focus of the fund.
Despite DeepSeek’s success, the country’s AI sector remains underinvested when compared to the US. The L2F seeks to tap this investment gap in China’s AI industry.
AI startup funding in China was a fraction of what US AI startups raised in 2024. Only $5.2 billion was raised by Chinese AI startups in 2024, which was 7% of the $76.3 billion raised by US companies, according to data provider CB Insights.
Also, US tech juggernauts’ capital expenditure (capex) has outstripped their counterparts in China. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta spent a total of $224 billion on capex, which is set to increase by 35% to $302 billion in 2025.
In contrast, Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent are projected to up their capex by 54% from $33 billion to $51 billion over the same period, according to a report by investment bank UBS.
