AI Investment Trends 2025: Family Offices Maintain Strong Focus on Artificial Intelligence Despite Overall Deal Slowdown

While economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions have triggered a significant pullback in overall deal-making activity among family offices in 2025, artificial intelligence investments continue to buck this trend, revealing the ultra-wealthy’s strategic long-term bet on AI’s transformative potential. This apparent contradiction—declining overall investments alongside sustained AI enthusiasm—offers important insights into how the investment vehicles of billionaires and ultra-high-net-worth individuals are navigating the current market landscape.

The Broader Slowdown in Family Office Investments

The data paints a clear picture of caution among the investment vehicles of the ultra-wealthy. According to exclusive data provided to CNBC by Fintrx, a private wealth intelligence platform, single-family offices completed just 40 direct investments in April 2025, representing a substantial 31% month-over-month decline. The year-over-year comparison is even more striking, with April’s investment activity down 47% compared to the same month in 2024.

This marked slowdown comes amid growing concerns about President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, which have generated significant market uncertainty. The threat of expanded tariffs, particularly targeting Chinese imports, has prompted many family offices to adopt a more cautious stance toward new investments across various sectors.

Analysts suggest this pullback reflects not just concerns about tariffs but a broader reassessment of risk in the current economic environment. Many family offices appear to be preserving capital for strategic opportunities rather than deploying funds across a wide range of investments.

Why AI Remains the Exception to Investment Caution

Despite the overall decline in investment activity, artificial intelligence continues to capture the imagination—and capital—of family offices. Half of the direct investments made by single-family offices in April 2025 were directed toward AI-related startups, according to the Fintrx data.

This sustained interest in AI amid broader caution reveals a strategic calculation: family offices are becoming increasingly selective, focusing their investments on technologies they believe will drive fundamental economic transformation regardless of short-term market fluctuations.

The attraction to AI investments appears to be driven by several factors:

• The perception of AI as a technology with deep economic moats
• Long-term competitive advantages of established AI platforms
• The transformative potential across multiple sectors
• Higher barriers to entry compared to consumer-focused technologies

Jack Hidary, CEO of quantum AI firm SandboxAQ, explained this trend to CNBC: “What [family offices] realize, after years of investing in consumer-oriented tech—tech that helps you manage your pet’s food or something like that—it sounds great. It builds up a lot of users quickly, but it’s easily commoditized.”

SandboxAQ: A Case Study in Ultra-Wealthy AI Investment

Perhaps no recent example better illustrates the continued enthusiasm for AI investments among family offices than SandboxAQ’s successful Series E funding round. The Palo Alto-based quantum AI company, which spun off from Alphabet in 2022, recently finalized a $450 million financing round after upsizing the fundraise twice due to overwhelming investor demand.

The company initially raised approximately $300 million in December 2024, then extended the round this spring to secure an additional $150 million. What makes this fundraising particularly notable is the roster of family offices and billionaires that participated, representing some of the most sophisticated technology investors in the world.

SandboxAQ specializes in using artificial intelligence and quantum technology to make large-scale predictions and statistical analysis, targeting industries ranging from drug discovery and cybersecurity to navigation and financial modeling. The company’s advanced technology analyzes vast numerical datasets to develop predictive AI models—precisely the kind of deeply technical approach that increasingly attracts family office capital.

The Billionaire Backers Fueling AI Innovation

The list of family offices and billionaires investing in SandboxAQ reads like a who’s who of technology and investment luminaries. The company’s backers include:

These aren’t passive investors merely looking for financial returns. According to Hidary, these family offices provide significant strategic value beyond their capital: “These are very value-added family offices because they know the world of tech well. They know the world of finance well. These are experienced executives and entrepreneurs who lend a hand in advising us and are active in doing so.”

The involvement of corporate strategic investors like Google and Nvidia further enhances SandboxAQ’s position, creating a powerful ecosystem of backers with deep expertise in AI and quantum technologies.

The Strategic Shift to Deep-Tech Investments

The sustained interest in AI investments among family offices represents a significant evolution in their investment approach. According to Hidary, professionally managed family offices have developed a growing appetite for deep-tech startups that serve business clients rather than consumers.

“They used to see deep tech as something they didn’t touch. It’s not their purview. They didn’t make their money, you know, doing that,” Hidary explained. “But now it turns out they understand that actually it’s lower risk to invest in deep moat companies.”

This shift in perspective reflects several key realizations among the ultra-wealthy investor class:

1. Competitive Moats Matter: Technologies with strong intellectual property and high barriers to entry provide better long-term protection
2. B2B Over B2C: Business-focused applications often have more sustainable revenue models than consumer apps
3. Technical Complexity as Protection: The technical sophistication required for quantum AI creates natural defenses against competitors
4. Longer Investment Horizons: The multigenerational perspective of family offices aligns with deep-tech development timelines

Family Offices’ Unique AI Investment Approach

Beyond just the types of AI investments they pursue, family offices are also distinguished by their approach to due diligence and decision-making. Hidary noted that while family offices can often make investment decisions more quickly than traditional institutional investors, many conduct extraordinarily thorough technical evaluations before committing capital.

Jim Breyer, for instance, met with Hidary four or five times to discuss specific chapters from two books Hidary had authored, seeking deep technical understanding before investing. Ray Dalio’s investment followed years of discussions with Hidary about AI’s economic impact, conversations that began halfway around the world in Abu Dhabi.

This combination of thorough analysis and decisive action gives family offices a unique advantage in the competitive AI investment landscape. Their ability to commit substantial capital without the constraints of traditional venture capital or private equity fund structures also allows them to take a genuinely long-term perspective.

Hidary emphasized the importance of this long-term orientation: “You don’t want a family office that’s here to just flip a burger, right? And that would not be a good fit for us. We’re looking to build a global company in the top echelon of tech companies. And I think people are attracted to that ambition. They’re attracted to that focus, but it’s not for every family office.”

Future Outlook for Family Office AI Investments

Looking ahead, the disproportionate focus on artificial intelligence among family office investments appears likely to continue even as overall deal activity remains subdued. Several factors suggest this trend will persist:

• AI’s Economic Impact: The technology’s potential to transform virtually every sector of the economy
• Computational Advances: Ongoing improvements in computational capability that enhance AI’s potential
• Quantum Computing Development: The emerging intersection of quantum computing and AI, creating new possibilities
• Competitive Positioning: Family offices’ desire to secure early positions in transformative technologies
• Portfolio Diversification: AI investments providing exposure to a broad range of sectors through a single technological thesis

While overall economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions may continue to suppress general investment activity, the strategic calculation among family offices appears clear: artificial intelligence represents a transformative technology with potential returns that justify continued investment despite broader market caution.

For the ultra-wealthy individuals and families behind these investment vehicles, AI isn’t just another trendy sector—it represents a fundamental shift in how businesses operate and how value is created. Their sustained commitment to the sector, even amid broader pullbacks, suggests they view AI not as a speculative bet but as a cornerstone of future economic activity.

As family offices continue to refine their approach to AI investments, focusing increasingly on technically differentiated companies with strong competitive moats, they are helping shape the next generation of artificial intelligence leaders while potentially securing significant returns for their ultra-wealthy backers.