LeCun Joins 224 Ventures As AI Insiders Formalize A New Funding Network
TNW reported that Yann LeCun and Oriol Vinyals joined 224 Ventures, a new AI-focused firm with more than $100 million in assets under management and a plan to back early startups through insider technical networks.
224 Ventures is launching as an early-stage AI investment firm with more than $100 million in assets under management, pairing Yann LeCun and Oriol Vinyals with AIX Ventures co-founder Shaun Johnson to back startups building capital-efficient AI applications.
TNW reported on August 5, 2026, that the firm will write $1 million to $5 million checks into startups valued below $100 million.
It will not lead rounds.
The University of Illinois is the anchor investor, and most of the limited partners are AI insiders, including researchers at frontier labs, startup founders and Fortune 500 leaders.
The firm is targeting $81 million for its core early-stage vehicle, with about $30 million raised so far.
It has also invested more than $60 million in growth-stage AI companies through special-purpose vehicles.
Once the early-stage fund closes, Johnson expects total assets to reach at least $150 million.
224 Ventures is focused on early-stage AI applications, especially research talent building capital-efficient models.
Robotics and AI infrastructure are also in scope.
The firm has already made multiple undisclosed investments.
The launch gives LeCun a venture vehicle after Extelligence Invest, his previous VC effort, collapsed within eight hours in July over undisclosed “exclusive relationships” with other funds.
LeCun called that episode a miscommunication at the time.
At 224 Ventures, all three partners will invest exclusively through the firm, vote on investments together and split profits equally.
Vinyals joins the fund while also leaving Google DeepMind, where he had served as Gemini’s co-technical lead.
He announced his departure alongside Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat and Quoc Le, with all four leaving to co-found Discovery Loop, a startup aimed at automating science and engineering.
LeCun will keep his role as executive chairman of AMI Labs, the world-models startup he raised $1 billion for in March.
He described 224 Ventures as a way to pool resources with Vinyals, support founders and stay close to new AI developments.
LeCun and Vinyals were already active angel investors.
Both backed Perplexity before it became one of the most talked-about AI startups.
LeCun also invested in Groq, which Nvidia later acquired in a $20 billion licensing and talent deal.
Johnson invested in Perplexity and voice tech maker Wispr AI through AIX Ventures before leaving that firm in December.
