# Sequoia Capital > The US venture capital firm founded in 1972 in California, managing roughly US$85 billion and holding stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic as their IPOs approach. **Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads: · 4 takes · 3 lenses · 1 regions ## What it is Sequoia Capital is a US venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, founded by Don Valentine in 1972. After a 2023 restructuring, the Sequoia name covers only the US and European entity; the Chinese operation became HongShan and the India and Southeast Asia arm became Peak XV Partners. As of mid-2026, the US and European entity manages roughly US$85 billion across seed, venture, and late-stage expansion funds. The firm invests in artificial intelligence, enterprise software, consumer, fintech, healthcare, and defence technology, and holds stakes in multiple companies expected to pursue US public listings in 2026 and 2027. ## History Valentine raised Sequoia's first fund in 1974 and made early bets that anchored the firm: Atari in 1975, Apple in 1978 before its 1980 Nasdaq IPO, Cisco in 1987, Oracle in the late 1980s, and Yahoo in 1995. Doug Leone and Michael Moritz assumed leadership in 1996 and oversaw investments in Google (2000), YouTube (acquired by Google in 2006 for US$1.65 billion), LinkedIn (acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for US$26 billion), WhatsApp (acquired by Facebook in 2014 for US$19 billion), and Instagram (acquired by Facebook in 2012 for US$1 billion). Jim Goetz led the US practice from 2012 to 2017, when Roelof Botha, former chief financial officer of PayPal, became steward. In 2021, Sequoia restructured its US and European funds into a single evergreen vehicle, departing from the conventional 10-year limited-partnership cycle. In 2023, citing geopolitical complexity, the firm split off HongShan (China) and Peak XV Partners (India and Southeast Asia). In November 2025, Botha stepped down in a surprise partner vote; Alfred Lin and Pat Grady became joint managing partners. ## Current state As of mid-2026, the US and European entity manages roughly US$85 billion. Sequoia holds a stake in OpenAI and joined a January 2026 Anthropic funding round, see [Anthropic closes $65bn Series H at a $965bn valuation, files for IPO](/ar/n/anthropic-series-h-ipo-2026), an unusual move given that both companies compete directly in the large-language-model market. In April 2026, under new co-managing partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, the firm closed a US$7 billion expansion strategy fund, nearly double the US$3.4 billion comparable vehicle from 2022 and the largest late-stage fund in the firm's history. The fund targets US and European AI companies approaching public-listing scale. Sequoia has also backed Physical Intelligence, a San Francisco robotics company that raised US$400 million in late 2024, and Factory, which builds AI coding agents for enterprise engineering teams. ## Relationships Sequoia and [Andreessen Horowitz](/ar/n/a16z-dossier) are the two dominant US venture capital platforms, each managing more than US$85 billion, both running dedicated AI investment strategies as part of the wider [Silicon Valley](/ar/n/silicon-valley-dossier) technology cluster. Limited partners include US university endowments, pension funds, and international sovereign wealth funds; Sequoia does not publicly disclose its LP composition. The US and European entity maintains legacy portfolio ties with HongShan and Peak XV Partners through co-investment agreements from pre-split vintage funds, though the three entities are now independently governed. Pat Grady focuses on enterprise software; Alfred Lin, formerly chief operating officer of Zappos, covers consumer and growth-stage companies. See also [OpenAI](/ar/n/openai-dossier) for the parallel trajectory of Sequoia's largest AI holding. ## What to watch The largest near-term catalysts are the expected US IPOs of OpenAI and Anthropic, both reportedly targeting 2026 or 2027; a successful exit from either would rank among the most significant liquidity events in US venture capital history. The US$7 billion expansion fund must generate large exits within a compressed window, as the evergreen structure creates ongoing pressure to return capital and demonstrate performance to limited partners. The co-managing partnership of Lin and Grady is untested across a full market cycle, with the central question being whether they can maintain valuation discipline while competing against [Andreessen Horowitz](/ar/n/a16z-dossier), Tiger Global, and SoftBank for late-stage AI deals at elevated prices. ## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens) ### firm profile - **Sequoia Capital** (United States, en) — Official website of the US and European entity of Sequoia Capital, confirming Menlo Park headquarters and the firm's current investment focus across AI, enterprise, consumer, and healthcare. Source: https://sequoiacap.com/ ### fund announcement - **TechCrunch** (United States, en) — Reports the April 2026 close of Sequoia's US$7 billion expansion strategy fund, nearly double the US$3.4 billion 2022 comparable vehicle, under new co-managing partners Alfred Lin and Pat Grady. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/16/new-leaders-new-fund-sequoia-has-raised-7b-to-expand-its-ai-bets/ ### leadership transition - **Fortune** (United States, en) — Covers Roelof Botha stepping down as Sequoia steward in November 2025 after a surprise partner vote, with Alfred Lin and Pat Grady becoming joint managing partners of the 54-year-old US firm. Source: https://fortune.com/2025/11/04/roelof-botha-steps-aside-as-sequoias-steward-passing-the-role-to-alfred-lin-and-pat-grady/ - **Axios** (United States, en) — Contemporaneous report on the November 2025 Sequoia leadership change, detailing the circumstances of Botha's departure and the elevation of Lin and Grady as the firm's new co-stewards. Source: https://www.axios.com/2025/11/04/sequoia-capital-roelof-botha-pat-grady-alfred-lin ## Across the graph - Related: [[anthropic-series-h-ipo-2026]], [[openai-dossier]], [[silicon-valley-dossier]], [[a16z-dossier]] - Entities: Org:sequoia, Alfred Lin, Pat Grady, Roelof Botha, Openai --- Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ar/n/sequoia-dossier