紐時賞析／15年高利潤上升期結束 矽谷知名創投業者紛紛退出

科技產業示意圖。圖／Ingimage

Venture Capital Is Seeing A Generational Adjustment

矽谷創投業者 今面臨世代交替

Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn and a longtime venture capitalist, is no longer the public face of the venture firm Greylock. Michael Moritz, a force at Sequoia Capital for 38 years, officially separated from the investment firm last summer. And Jeff Jordan, a top investor at Andreessen Horowitz for 12 years, left in May.

領英創辦人兼長期創投業者霍夫曼不再是創投公司Greylock的代言人。莫里茲在紅杉資本效力38年，去年夏天正式跟這家投資公司分手。喬丹在安德立森霍洛維茲當了12年的頂級投資者，於5月離開。

They are among the most recognizable of a generation of Silicon Valley investors who are getting out of venture capital at the end of a lucrative 15-year upswing for the industry.

他們是一個世代矽谷投資者當中最知名的幾位，在這個產業利潤豐厚的15年上升期結束時離開創業投資。

Many more are leaving. Investors at Tiger Global, Paradigm, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Emergence Capital and Spark Capital have all announced plans to step back. Foundry Group, a venture firm in Boulder, Colorado, that has backed 200 companies since 2006, said in January that it would not raise another fund.

還有更多人離開。老虎全球基金、Paradigm、光速創投、新興資本與星火資本都有投資者宣佈計劃退出。科羅拉多州波德的創投公司鑄造集團2006年起已經贊助200家公司，一月稱不會籌集另一輪資金。

Taken together, the steady thrum of departures has created a sense that venture capital — a $1.1 trillion corner of finance that invests in young, private companies, sometimes spawning enterprises such as Apple, Google and Amazon — is in a moment of transition.

綜合來看，持續不斷的離職讓人感覺到創投業正處於一個轉型時刻。這是個價值1.1兆美元的金融領域，投資於初創私人公司，有時催生了蘋果、谷歌與亞馬遜等企業。

“We’re at a tipping point,” said Alan Wink, a managing director of capital markets at EisnerAmper, which provides advisory services to venture capital firms. While there have been waves of retirements in the past, he said this one was more pronounced.

爲創業投資公司提供諮詢服務的EisnerAmper資本市場董事總經理溫克說，「我們正處於一個轉捩點」。雖然過去出現過退休潮，他說這一次更明顯。

The turnover creates an opening for new investors to step up, potentially shifting who the power players are in Silicon Valley. That may also change the calculus for young companies as they decide which venture firms to seek money from.

這次變動爲新投資者向前邁進創造機會，可能改變矽谷的權力玩家。這也可能改變初創公司決定向哪些創投公司尋求資金時的考量。

Yet the latest generation of investors faces a startup investment landscape that has become more challenging. Few venture capital funds are reaping the kinds of enormous windfalls — which come from startups going public or being bought — that can secure an investor’s reputation.

然而，最新一代投資者面對一個已變得更有挑戰性的新創投資格局。很少創投基金正在獲得夠龐大的橫財可確保投資者的名聲，這些橫財來自新創企業上市或被收購。

Today’s up-and-coming venture capitalists are waiting for their version of those winners. Some of the most highly valued startups — such as OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company valued at $86 billion — are in no hurry to go public or sell. And the frenzy around generative AI could take years to translate into big wins.

如今嶄露頭角的創投業者，正在等候自己版本的贏家。一些估值最高的新創企業，例如估值爲860億美元的人工智慧公司OpenAI，都不急於上市或出售。而圍繞着生成式人工智慧的狂潮，可能需要多年才能轉化成巨大勝利。

“We’re in this period of reset, based on where the technology is and where it’s going,” said David York, an investor at Top Tier Capital, which invests in other venture capital firms. “These stars will emerge.”

投資其他創投公司的Top Tier Capital投資者約克說，「我們正處於重置時期，取決於技術現狀跟發展方向。這些明星將會出現」。

文／Erin Griffith 譯／周辰陽