Benchmark Bought a Birkin.
old dog with some new tricks
Acquihire.
In June 2025, Meta spent $15 billion to acquire a 49% stake in Scale AI, also hiring Scale CEO Alexandr Wang in the process.
In July 2025, Google paid $2.4 billion to hire the Windsurf leadership team and license their technology.
In December 2025, NVIDIA gave Groq $20 billion to acquire key assets, technology and talent from the inference chip developer.
Not to mention the Google-Wiz deal ($32 billion), the Microsoft-Inflection AI deal ($650 million) and select others.
The rationale behind these deals is that an “acquihire” consolidates extremely valuable talent pieces while avoiding the antitrust scrutiny that comes with blockbuster acquisitions. Since Google/Meta/NVIDIA aren’t technically acquiring the company outright, federal regulators aren’t able to pounce and stall said transactions, which is important, because the largest technology platforms need top AI talent right now. It’s like the Lakers and the Celtics are playing in the Finals and through a loophole, the Lakers are able to acquire Kevin Durant for the rest of the series. If this trend continues, the feds will likely evolve. But until then
We are beginning to examine these acqui-hires to make sure they are not an attempt to get around the agency’s merger review process.
Kevin Ferguson, FTC Chairman
Benchmark, a storied Silicon Valley venture firm, just added the acquihire move to its bag.
Last week, the firm announced that it was hiring Jack Altman, Sam Altman’s brother, and Alt Capital founder.
In a LinkedIn post, Jack made it clear that he was bringing his team from Alt Capital, which raised a $274 million fund just five months ago, with him.
Bala Chanrasekaran, a UIUC computer science graduate who worked at South Park Commons then Alt Capital, will be joining Benchmark.
Vivek Katara, a Yale computer science graduate and former software engineer at Rippling, will be making the transition from Alt Capital to Benchmark.
Nate Collins, a Furman BA who was previously Chief of Staff at First Round Capital, will be transitioning from Head of Operations at Alt Capital to an unspecified role at Benchmark.
Although the post made it seem as if the entire Alt Capital team is being absorbed into Benchmark, this is not the case.
Elaine Dai, a Harvard graduate and Alt Capital partner who previously worked at Norwest Venture Partners for five years, was not mentioned as one of the members moving over to Benchmark.
There is also some opacity around what will happen to the recently raised fund. According to anonymous sources on other media outlets, uncollected capital will not be called, and Alt Capital will not make any new investments.
In addition to investing in startups, a lot of the value from Alt Capital can be traced back to Jack’s podcast, Uncapped. The podcast has spanned over forty episodes after launching in 2025 and featured venture moguls like Marc Andreessen, Keith Rabois, Garry Tan, Sam Altman, Elad Gil, and more. It is quietly becoming an industry staple, alongside known incumbent 20VC. And the Uncapped pod is now a shiny asset on Benchmark’s balance sheet.
To understand the significance of this hire, it is critical to understand who Benchmark is.
Benchmark is an old dog.
Founded in 1995, they are one of the only firms that can say they have invested across every era: eBay, Uber, and Snapchat are all trophy names in their portfolio.
Benchmark still keeps a small partnership, with no more than six general partners at any given time.
Benchmark still prides itself on being the best Series A investor, not B or C or D or E.
Benchmark still keeps a low profile, with minimal online presence.
And for a firm of its caliber, Benchmark has not been the busiest bee in this new AI age.
In terms of status, Benchmark lags behind the new cats, Thrive, a16z, Founders Fund, et al.
So Benchmark bringing on a media first, AI focused personality in Jack Altman, along with most of his team, is quite a signal to say the least.
Alt Capital closed on a $150 million Fund I in early 2024 before the $274 million Fund II in September 2025. The platform invested in more than 52 companies during its relatively short life. Standout companies include:
a collaborative AI platform for lawyers
$150 million Series C at $1.8 billion valuation
Rogo:
an AI platform for investment bankers
$75 million Series C led by Sequoia
proprietary audio datasets to power AI lab models
$50 million Series B led by Meritech
AI native cybersecurity platform for enterprise
$40 million Series A led by Accel
Benchmark isn’t just buying an AI centric investor, Sam Altman’s brother, a hot podcast, or fresh blood… It’s buying the same product luxury handbag companies sell.
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