With the exit environment rebounding and unicorn IPOs taking off, AI is becoming a critical focus area for investors, and that goes beyond whether companies are merely adopting it, Fenwick’s Ran Ben-Tzur told Crunchbase.
Citing recent behemoth IPOs like CoreWeave and Figma, which Ben-Tzur worked on, Crunchbase noted that there is growing confidence in the market, especially for companies with strong growth stories and those focused on AI innovation.
But public market investors aren’t just interested in “what the potential tailwinds are, but also how it impacts the financial model,” Ben-Tzur told Crunchbase.
“Are you going to get disrupted by AI over the next few years?” he said. “They’re really drilling down on that as a diligence topic with companies.”
And IPOs aren’t the only area that is normalizing. M&A activity is also picking up, albeit slower, Crunchbase said, citing 2025’s largest-yet transaction (and another Fenwick matter): Wiz’s planned $32 billion acquisition by Alphabet.
Read the full article at Crunchbase.