Who is Sequoia Capital?
Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. Don Valentine founded it in 1972 1. It was an early investor in Apple, Oracle, Cisco, Nvidia, Google, PayPal, YouTube, Airbnb, Stripe and WhatsApp 28. Fortune put its assets at about $56 billion in 2025 6. Since 2024 it has covered the US and Europe only, after its China and India businesses became separate firms 14.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1972, by Don Valentine 1 |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California 28 |
| Leaders | Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, since November 2025 6 |
| Chairman | Doug Leone, reported April 2026 7 |
| Assets | About $56 billion 6 |
| Evergreen fund | Sequoia Capital Fund, about $19.6 billion 10 |
How Sequoia started
Valentine had worked for seven years at Fairchild Semiconductor and then became the founding head of sales and marketing at National Semiconductor 1. Sequoia’s first fund, of $3 million, was formed with Capital Group in 1974 and backed Atari and Apple; Valentine sat on both boards 1. Sequoia says it partnered with Apple in 1978 and Nvidia in 1993 23. In June 1999 it co-led a $25 million round in Google with Kleiner Perkins, and Michael Moritz joined Google’s board 4.
Who runs Sequoia?
Doug Leone and Michael Moritz led the firm from 1996 28. Leone stepped aside in 2022 and Roelof Botha became senior steward from July that year 5. Moritz left in 2023 to focus on Sequoia Heritage, the firm’s wealth business 8. On 4 November 2025 Botha stepped aside, and Alfred Lin and Pat Grady became joint stewards; Botha moved to an advisory role 6. The Wall Street Journal reported that partners had raised concerns about his leadership style 26. Forbes reported in April 2026 that Leone had returned in a new chairman role 7.
How it invests
In October 2021 Sequoia moved its US and European business into the Sequoia Capital Fund, an open-ended fund that replaces the usual ten-year fund cycle. Investors put money into the main fund, which feeds stage-specific sub-funds, and the firm can hold shares in listed companies for longer. Botha said the ten-year cycle had become obsolete 9. A 2025 filing put the fund at $19.6 billion 10.
| Date | Fund or programme | Size |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Arc seed programme, $1 million per company | Not disclosed 13 |
| October 2025 | Seed Fund VI and Venture Fund XIX | $950 million in total 11 |
| April 2026 | Expansion fund for later-stage bets | About $7 billion, as reported 12 |
The 2023 split
On 6 June 2023 Sequoia said it would split into three firms by March 2024: Sequoia Capital in the US and Europe, HongShan in China under Neil Shen, and Peak XV Partners in India and Southeast Asia. Shared profits ended and no new cross-region investments would be made. The firms cited portfolio conflicts and differing strategies; reports also pointed to US-China tensions 14. In October 2023 a US House committee asked Sequoia about its Chinese investments in AI and chips, and called the split a step in the right direction 15.
Notable investments
| Company | Outcome |
|---|---|
| About $60 million invested; stake worth about $3 billion when Facebook bought it for $19 billion in 2014 16 | |
| Klarna | About $2.7 billion gain on roughly $500 million at the September 2025 IPO 17 |
| SpaceX | Stake valued at more than $20 billion after the June 2026 IPO 18 |
| OpenAI | Investor since 2021 19 |
| Anthropic | Joined the $30 billion round at a $380 billion valuation, 2026 21 |
The Anthropic investment was reported as unusual because Sequoia also backs OpenAI and xAI, two direct rivals 20.
Controversies
FTX. In November 2022 Sequoia wrote its $214 million investment in the crypto exchange FTX down to zero, saying “we are in the business of taking risk” 22. Partners later apologised to their investors and said they believed they had been misled 23.
Shaun Maguire. In July 2025 partner Shaun Maguire posted about New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani; about 600 people signed a letter asking Sequoia to condemn the post. Sequoia declined to comment 24. Chief operating officer Sumaiya Balbale resigned over the matter, and the firm was reported to have cited free speech 25. Bloomberg Law later reported that the new leaders planned a less politically partisan image 27.
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