2026 is set to be a pivotal year that will define the future direction of tech. We are already seeing companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Perplexity, SpaceX, and Neuralink leveraging AI to progress at an incredible pace. Yet none of these companies are public and therefore, out of reach for the everyday retail investor. The opportunity to invest in these companies is simply not available to the general public. But the one fund changing that is the Robinhood Ventures Fund (RVI).
Last month, the fund bought stakes in Stripe and ElevenLabs, helping investors take exposure to modern fintech and AI private companies. In fact, the fund is highly exposed to these two fields, with existing stakes in companies like Revolut, Mercor, Ramp, and Databricks. RVI has now added a new name to its holdings, Sam Altman’s OpenAI. The maker of ChatGPT is closing in on a trillion-dollar valuation in the private markets, and considering its dominant position in the artificial intelligence arena, this could still be as cheap as it gets for a company like OpenAI.
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About Robinhood Ventures Fund
Launched in late 2024, the Robinhood Ventures Fund is a publicly traded closed-end fund that acquires stakes in private companies and lets retail investors take exposure to those companies by buying the ETF on the stock market. Robinhood Markets, as the name suggests, has always been on a mission to make markets more accessible to the retail investor, and the ETF is one of many ways the company fulfills its mission.
The fund was only recently listed on the stock exchange on March 6 this year. The IPO price was set at $25, but it opened at $22 and has already delivered significant gains, trading above $30.
barchart.comWhat’s In The Robinhood Venture Fund?
The Robinhood Ventures Fund is different from your average ETF. Generally, people go to ETFs to get a diversified exposure to certain industries or trends (though not so simple as we point out in our recent ETF Special). RVI doesn’t bother with all that. Instead, it takes concentrated positions in companies it believes give retail investors access to high-growth private companies that were previously only available for institutional investors. Yes, it is quite literally a revenge ETF, and once you look at its holdings, it gets even more impressive.
Fintech and artificial intelligence are the two most common themes in the fund’s holdings. It holds well-known names like Revolut and Stripe while also giving exposure to companies like Liveramp Holdings (RAMP) and Airwallex, which are relatively younger companies.
On the AI front, OpenAI is now the fund’s prime holding. It also holds ElevenLans, which specializes in generating realistic text-to-speech and voice cloning technology for entertainment and enterprise applications.
Another exciting holding is Databricks, which powers most of modern enterprise AI infrastructure. It offers an AI platform that not only allows companies to store, process, and analyze data but also gives them the ability to build their own models on top. Mercor, an AI-driven hiring company, is also an interesting part of the fund’s portfolio.
Naturally, none of the companies can match the excitement that OpenAI’s addition now brings. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the fund will now have more eyeballs tracking it, helping improve inflows and possibly the valuation.
On the date of publication, Jabran Kundi did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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