Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
Altimeter Capital Management
Brad Gerstner's crossover firm, started with a few million dollars in 2008, that invests in both public technology stocks and late-stage private companies. It is known for early growth bets such as Snowflake, a $40bn SPAC merger with Grab that went badly, a public "Time to Get Fit" letter that pushed Meta into its 2023 "year of efficiency", and a large, early bet on Nvidia and AI.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2008, Menlo Park, CA (with an office in Boston)
- Founders
- Brad Gerstner (sole founder)
- Headquarters
- Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA
- Ownership / structure
- Private, founder-controlled; SEC-registered investment adviser managing a public long/short equity fund and private growth ("venture") funds
- Leadership (2026)
- Brad Gerstner (founder, chairman and CEO); partners including Jamin Ball (software investor and author of the "Clouded Judgement" newsletter), with a small investment team (other partner names and titles: verify)
- AUM / capital raised
- Reported regulatory AUM varies by date and method: ~$18bn (Form ADV, March 2022); ~$15bn widely cited in 2022; lower after the 2022 drawdown (~$7bn reported for some 2024 measures) and higher again by 2025–2026 as AI holdings rose (verify current figure)
- Stage focus
- Public technology equities (concentrated long book) and late-stage private growth rounds; occasional SPACs
- Signature investments
- Snowflake (led 2015 Series C), Uber, Okta and other pre-IPO software holdings (reported), Roblox, Plaid, Benchling, Grab (SPAC), Meta (public; activist letter), Nvidia (public), OpenAI. Misses and failures: Grab SPAC; 2021 growth marks (Plaid); the 2022 drawdown in the public fund
8 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2015
Snowflake
Series C
2021
Benchling
Series F
2021
Grab
SPAC Merger and PIPE
2021
Plaid
Series D
2021
Roblox
Series H
2022
Meta
Public Position and Open Letter
2023
Nvidia
Public Equity Position
2024
OpenAI
Growth Round