Gemini Co-founders Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss attend the company's IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City, U.S., Sept. 12, 2025. Jeenah Moon | Reuters
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Investment firms of ultra-rich families have scaled back their deal-making throughout 2025, and the last quarter of the year is not off to a promising start. In October, family offices made 51 direct investments, down 63% on an annual basis, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth platform Fintrx. However, family offices are still backing massive fundraises for artificial intelligence companies. Last month, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss' namesake investment firm joined a $1.4 billion Series E round for Crusoe, boosting the data center developer's valuation to $10 billion. Hillspire, the family office of ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, participated in a $2 billion Series B round for Reflection, the open-source AI model lab now valued at $8 billion.
Family office investors were also involved in earlier headline-making rounds, such as Commonwealth Fusion's $863 million Series B2 fundraising. Hillspire, Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective and Stanley Druckenmiller's firm, Duquesne Family Office, joined the power plant developer's round, which was announced in August. While family offices are placing fewer bets, they haven't soured on large rounds, according to a recent report by PwC. In the first half of 2025, family offices made 23% fewer deals, but their value only fell by 18% on an annual basis, per PwC. The proportion of family office deals in excess of $100 million held steady at 15% and those over $500 million only edged down by 1 percentage point to 3%.
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