AI Has Turned LinkedIn Co-Founder and Venture Capitalist Reid Hoffman Into a Big Believer

LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman is reportedly stepping away from his general partner role at Greylock Partners as he sets his focus on artificial intelligence.

Hoffman is a known AI-enthusiast who was a founding investor of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and the founder of the startup Inflection AI.

Hoffman will not be a general partner on the venture firm’s upcoming $1 billion fund it is currently raising, according to The Wall Street Journal. He will no longer be required to make new investments or participate in votes regarding the firm’s deals. 

Hoffman has been waning himself off making investments during the firm’s last couple of funds. He made just one investment with Greylock’s previous fund to Tome, an AI-powered presentation tool. The fund before, he made only two investments. 

A Greylock spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that Hoffman could make occasional investments for the firm in his new role as strategic partner. 

The firm’s latest fund will be led by a team of six general partners — Saam Motamedi, Asheem Chandna, Jerry Chen, Jacob Andreou, Seth Rosenberg, and Mike Duboe, according to the newspaper. 

Hoffman announced March 3 in a LinkedIn post that he was resigning from the board of OpenAI to avoid conflicts of interest as he looks to invest in other companies using OpenAI software. 

“As an investor, but also as a humanist, I want my participation in anything AI to support that goal of elevating humanity,” Hoffman wrote in the post. “As much as I can help, I want OpenAI, Inflection, and many more companies to have a clear path to build with each other, if they so choose, to the benefit of all of us.” 

In May, his startup, Inflection AI, launched its own ChatGPT-like chatbot called Pi, Reuters reported.