Arena recently co-led a $230 million round into AI chip startup Positron, an investment that earned the midwestern firm a board seat. Stein says that’s part of a deliberate shift away from being passive allocators and towards becoming “active participants in the capital markets.”

“The world’s AI infrastructure is being built now, so you’re either going to get in early and have an opportunity to do more primary investing…and really build a portfolio, or you’re going to miss it and be taking random bets,” Ari Schottenstein, Arena’s head of alternatives, told TechCrunch.

Stein put it more bluntly: “Your biggest risk is not having exposure to AI, not what could happen to your AI investments.”

The numbers reflect this sentiment. In February, family offices made 41 direct investments into startups, nearly all of them tied to AI. Among those are high profile names like Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective into World Labs, Azim Premji’s family office into Runway, and Eric Schmidt’s Hillspire into Goodfire. According to BNY Wealth research, 83% of family offices say AI is a top strategic priority over the next five years, and more than half have AI exposure through investments.