AI-Focused Firm Ditches Menlo Park for San Francisco

A major investor in Anthropic is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley into the belly of the beast in San Francisco.

Venture capital giant Lightspeed Venture Partners signed a 12-year lease for more than 43,000 square feet at 149 New Montgomery Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The firm plans to make the office its new headquarters while maintaining a presence at 2200 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. Lightspeed currently has a San Francisco office at 2 South Park Street, though it isn’t clear if it plans to keep that space or shift San Francisco operations to the New Montgomery Street building.

TMG Partners and Bridges Capital acquired 149 New Montgomery Street in September through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The 80,000-square-foot building has long been anchored by co-working provider Werqwise, though the status of its lease, which was slated to expire in 2028, is not clear.

Lightspeed’s move into the building is the latest signal that San Francisco’s artificial intelligence frenzy is reshaping the city’s office market after years of pandemic-era pain. Venture-backed firms in San Francisco pulled in $169 billion in funding during the first quarter alone, according to Cushman & Wakefield data cited by the Business Times. Giants like OpenAI and Anthropic have driven much of the surge, simultaneously competing for office space in Mission Bay and across the region.

Lightspeed has poured billions into Anthropic across several recent funding rounds. The firm led the company’s Series E round and co-led its Series F round last year; it was also a significant investor in Anthropic’s $30 billion Series G round early this year, which valued the company at $380 billion. Lightspeed’s future offices sit only a few blocks from Anthropic’s headquarters on Howard Street. Since breaking into the AI sector in 2012, Lightspeed has invested in roughly 165 AI startups, according to the Business Times.

The relocation puts the firm closer to a growing cluster of AI companies expanding in San Francisco, including some that Lightspeed has backed like Rippling, Carta, Glean and Navan. Lightspeed said in December it had raised $9 billion across multiple new funds focused on backing “breakthrough ideas and technology,” including AI startups. The company manages more than $40 billion in assets as of December.

— Chris Malone Méndez