Family Office Deal Activity Slows Despite Surge in AI Investments: According to CNBC & FINTRX Data

FINTRX intelligence cited on CNBC shows:

•  Peter Thiel’s family office made nine direct investments in H1 2025, largely in AI and aerospace.
•  Eric Schmidt’s Hillspire invested in Relativity Space and biotech innovator Imprint Labs.
•  Lucas Walton’s family office targeted sustainable energy companies like Carbon Upcycling and Firefly Green Fuels.

FINTRX AI: The Platform Behind the Trend

FINTRX powers the insights behind CNBC’s reporting, providing real-time intelligence on 4,300+ family offices and 30,000+ direct transactions. Our AI-enhanced platform enables investment professionals to identify capital flows, surface trends, and map warm introductions with speed and accuracy.

The same FINTRX tools that uncovered this trend are available to clients across the financial ecosystem:

• •  AI Analyst: Instantly surfaces allocation trends and strategic investment shifts.
  •  AI Search: Natural-language queries to identify firms investing in AI, sustainability, and more.
  •  Relationship Path: Pinpoints your warmest intros into family offices and key decision-makers.

Want to track investment shifts before they hit the headlines? Request a demo see how FINTRX uncovers real-time trends and maps your fastest path to capital.

Video Transcript

Becky Quick (00:00): Investments from family offices actually slowed down in the first half of the year. Robert Frank is here to tell us why some of the wealthiest investors in the country have been pressing pause. Hi, Robert.

Robert Frank (00:10): Good morning, Becky. Great to see you while family offices pulled back their deal-making in the first half, waiting for a little more clarity on what the tariff situation's going to look like. The total number of direct investments by family offices and startups fell 32% through June. That's according to exclusive data from fintechs. Now, their investments fell in just about every sector, including their normally favorite areas of tech, healthcare, and life sciences. Now, the one segment that did see an increase from family offices, you guessed it, was AI companies like Sandbox, Genesis, AI, and URL, all attracting a lot of family office capital in the first half. Now, among the most active family offices through June was Peter Thiels. He made nine family office startups, investments largely in aeronautics and AI companies. And you have Eric Schmidt's family office called Hillspire. They invested in Relativity Space and a company called Imprint Labs Biotech and Lucas Walton's family Office. He's the youngest Walton Air. He invested in sustainable energy and agricultural companies, including Carbon Upcycling and a company called Firefly Green Fuels. They make sustainable aviation fuels. Now, for more on the biggest family office deals in the first half and where the wealthiest investors are putting their money, you can sign up for the Inside Wealth Newsletter, a new one out tomorrow morning at cnbc.com/inside wealth. 

Becky Quick (01:36): So that drop of 32% was more than I had expected just based on what I'd read in the intro leading up to some of this stuff. How quickly can that change, because that was through June 30th. This month could make a lot of difference. We're hearing trade deals getting announced by the day? 

Robert Frank (01:55): It could. And the reason that companies like these startups love family office capital is number one it's very patient. Number two, it's flexible. And number three, it's fast. So these folks, because it's usually one person making the decision, if they feel more comfortable in the environment, which I think they will in the second half, it also depends on which companies are out there fundraising. And with private capital and private credit providing so much in the marketplace, there may be a little less need by startups for this kind of fundraise. They may just get it straight from private credit. So if we get more offerings and these family offices are more comfortable, which I think they will be, we'll see more in the second half. 

Full article linked here.