Sriram Krishnan, who departed the White House in June after serving as a top AI adviser to President Trump, is raising a venture capital fund focused on the AI sector, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The fund is targeting roughly $500 million and will invest in growth-stage and later-stage companies, the people said.

Before joining the Trump administration, Krishnan worked at technology companies including Microsoft and Twitter, and later served as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he helped the firm establish its London office.

During his White House tenure, Krishnan oversaw government AI policy under David Sacks, the administration's AI and crypto czar, and led the drafting of the America AI Action Plan released in July 2025.

Krishnan will serve as the sole general partner of the new fund, one person familiar with the matter said.

The new firm will focus on investing in domestic AI companies, aiming to strengthen America's technological leadership, with priority given to national security and cybersecurity.

Leveraging Krishnan's policy background, the fund will seek out companies with potential for public-private partnerships, modeled on the aerospace industry, where firms often work closely with government agencies such as NASA.

The fund is still in its preparatory stage, with no timetable yet set for a formal launch or first close, and no list of prospective portfolio companies has been disclosed, two people familiar with the matter said.

The fund plans to begin investing before the end of this year, one of the people said.

Potential backers include university endowments and other institutional investors, two sources said.

For a debut fund, $500 million is a substantial size, but it will need to compete with larger funds focused on mature companies.

It remains unclear whether Krishnan will invite limited partners to co-invest; such joint investment strategies are becoming increasingly popular as financing rounds continue to grow in size.

The Trump administration has drawn heavily on private-sector talent in assembling its AI and technology team, most notably Sacks, a venture capitalist and host of the popular All-In podcast.

Many Silicon Valley figures return to venture firms and tech companies ahead of the November midterm elections, a common departure window for government officials.

Sacks is one of them, having left the White House in March.

The Information previously reported that his venture firm, Craft Ventures, is aiming to raise a new $1 billion fund.

Sihao Huang, a senior official at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, recently joined Anthropic as head of frontier compute strategy, while Thomas Lind, an AI policy adviser at the Office of the National Cyber Director, joined OpenAI's national security team, also reported by The Information.

Krishnan's new fund comes at a critical moment for the AI industry.

Amid ongoing debate over frontier AI regulation, Anthropic is expected to go public around November, and its listing performance could serve as a bellwether for the industry's health.

One person familiar with the fundraising talks who is considering investing believes Krishnan's triple background as an operator, investor, and policymaker makes him highly valuable to companies seeking to navigate a complex regulatory environment.

Many institutional investors have proactively sought to learn about Krishnan and the new fund, this person said.

After working at several Silicon Valley technology companies, Krishnan joined a16z in 2021, investing in consumer and social startups.

A welcome post published by Marc Andreessen at the time also noted that Krishnan had served as an adviser to companies including Figma and Notion.

While at a16z, Krishnan was involved in the firm's $400 million investment in Twitter, part of Musk's $44 billion acquisition of the company in October 2022, and he helped Musk complete an internal restructuring of Twitter.

He later moved to a16z's crypto team and set up the firm's London office in 2023.

Krishnan had already considered launching an independent fund before deciding to join the Trump administration, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Trump's nomination of Krishnan as a senior AI adviser in December 2024 drew criticism from far-right influencers including Laura Loomer and Matt Gaetz, both longtime critics of U.S. skilled-worker visa programs.

Krishnan immigrated to the United States from India in 2007 and became a U.S. citizen in 2016.

Despite the controversy, Krishnan's appointment won bipartisan support, with backers including Musk and Silicon Valley Democratic Representative Ro Khanna.

During Krishnan's White House tenure, U.S. AI policy under Sacks leaned toward light-touch regulation.

The AI Action Plan emphasized federal legislation taking precedence over state-level AI rules and encouraged data center construction through permitting reform.

Krishnan also traveled with White House delegations to international summits in France, India, and the Middle East.

His decision to leave the White House stemmed from real-world challenges to the administration's light-touch AI regulatory approach: in April, Anthropic released its powerful Mythos model, rattling the policy world.

The model's formidable cyber offense and defense capabilities drew in senior officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and the White House rolled out a voluntary AI evaluation framework requiring safety testing before models are deployed.

Krishnan's new fund will likely recruit team members with backgrounds in both public policy and Silicon Valley, one person familiar with the matter said.