Stablecoin giant Tether plans to invest a significant portion of its revenue in technologies like emerging markets, artificial intelligence (AI) and biotech, according to CEO Paolo Ardoino.

Tether expects to invest at least $1 billion into deals in the next 12 months through its venture capital arm, Ardoino said in an interview with Bloomberg published on June 11.

According to the CEO, Tether has a growing team of 15 who evaluate hundreds of pitches monthly. Tether’s VC arm has already spent about $2 billion on tech like AI and alternative financial infrastructure over the past two years.

Tether can offer AI computing to all invested firms

The Tether CEO also mentioned that Tether has already invested more than $1 billion into AI, including backing the data center operator Northern Data Group with a $610 million debt financing facility in 2023.

“We can offer AI computing to all the companies we have invested in,” Ardoino said, adding:

“It’s all about investing in technology that helps with disintermediation with traditional finance. Less reliance on the Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft.”

Ardoino’s new remarks on Tether’s VC ambitions come a few weeks after Tether reported a record net profit of $4.52 billion in the first quarter of 2024. Most profits — $3.52 billion — came from the firm’s financial gains on Bitcoin (BTC) and gold, while the additional $1 billion came from operating profits.

Tether doesn’t require startups to reach certain targets

“You can imagine that the news that Tether is making good money went around the world,” Ardoino stated. “We get tens or hundreds of deals per month that are on the table, and we only end up doing a very small percentage of that,” he added.

Ardoino also mentioned that Tether doesn’t require companies to reach certain targets of profitability in the next one to two years following investment.

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“Our investment policy is investing only in projects we find extremely interesting,” he said, adding:

“We are not a classic VC. We do invest in things that we care about, and we have our own strategy.”

Tether is one of the largest companies in the cryptocurrency industry. It operates the eponymous Tether (USDT) stablecoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency and stablecoin on the market.

The news comes a few months after Tether restructured its business into several divisions, including Tether Data, Tether Finance, Tether Power, Tether Edu, Tether Evo and others in April 2024.

Apart from AI investments, Tether has been increasingly involved in Bitcoin mining, investing $150 million in Jihan Wu’s crypto mining firm Bitdeer in May.

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