North Carolina-based hedge fund manager Morgan Creek Digital intends to raise roughly $500 million for a new fund focused on investing in artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technologies, chips, and data opportunities.

According to a press release, Morgan Creek’s new fund will invest in early-stage companies that combine AI power with blockchain technology and the associated chips to unlock value from data.

Morgan Creek To Raise $500M for New Fund

Morgan Creek is looking for technology that overlaps sectors, such as high-performance chips that can be used for mining Bitcoin or training AI models in data centers.

The hedge fund manager is already in talks with partners, sovereign and institutional investors, and corporate officers across several regions, including Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Asia-Pacific (APC). It also intends to expand its regional footprint through the new fund.

Morgan Creek Digital General Partner Mark Yusko said: “With the global reach of Web3, MCD will be spending more time in international markets looking to connect with the best CEOs and partners.”

Morgan Creek believes the EMEA and APAC regions, particularly the Middle East, will be the future leaders of technology due to their rising investments in the AI and blockchain sectors.

With over $440 million raised since its inception, the venture capital firm believes APAC countries could triple investment in generative AI, while EMEA nations could see capital injected into the same sectors grow by 40%. Such growth in the regions could add $30 billion in new net investment by next year.

The Resurgence of Crypto VC Market

Morgan Creek Digital’s latest announcement comes as the crypto venture capital market rebounds with more active fundraising than last year, especially for early-stage companies. The first two quarters of 2024 have seen good number of deals raise billions of dollars, according to a report from Galaxy Research.

Although crypto venture capital flows peaked in the first quarter of 2022, the following consecutive quarters saw declining volumes until the first quarter of 2024, which recorded $2.5 billion raised across 603 deals. Q2 2024 saw even better numbers, although the number of deals fell slightly; $3.2 billion was raised across 577 deals.

With the bull market expected to occur this year, investors may be experiencing a fear of missing out (FOMO) and major competition that could see the number of deals and amount raised surge even higher.