A VC Argues the AI IPO Wave's Real Effect Is Concentrating Capital in the Ten Biggest Funds, Not Repricing Public Markets
Andrew Gershfeld, GP at Flint Capital, argues in Crunchbase News today that the consequential moment in an AI IPO is not the listing but the LP distribution that follows — and that returned capital predominantly gets redeployed into the largest established managers. His numbers: the top 10 US venture funds captured nearly a third of all capital raised in 2025, with a16z alone raising over $15B across five funds, or 18% of all US VC dollars. Emerging fund formation is at its lowest rate in over a decade and he expects OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, and Stripe exits to worsen it: 'the market may become larger without becoming broader.' The practical read for founders outside the top-fund orbit is that a liquidity wave does not mean a funding wave.
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