AME Cloud Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm founded by Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo. Yang established AME Cloud Ventures in 2012 after stepping down from Yahoo's board, channeling his focus into early-stage bets on data infrastructure, cloud computing, and emerging technology platforms. The firm operates out of Palo Alto, California, and is backed by Yang's personal capital along with a select group of limited partners.
The firm takes a concentrated approach – a small number of investments, often at the seed or Series A stage, where it can add meaningful guidance beyond capital. Yang's background at Yahoo and his early, career-defining investment in Alibaba – one of the most profitable venture bets in history – gives AME Cloud Ventures a strong signal in enterprise, marketplace, and infrastructure deals. The fund's name reflects this thesis: AME references cloud-era computing as the defining platform of the current investment cycle.
Notable Investments
AME Cloud Ventures has backed a range of data and infrastructure companies. Among the most cited names:
- Workday – enterprise HR and finance software; Yang was an early backer and board observer
- Cloudera – Hadoop-based data platform (since acquired by KKR and Clearlake Capital)
- Docker – containerization platform central to modern DevOps pipelines
- Inphi – high-speed semiconductor company acquired by Marvell Technology in 2021 for approximately $10 billion
- Houzz – home design and renovation marketplace
In the digital assets space, AME Cloud Ventures has participated in a modest number of rounds – consistent with the fund's broader philosophy of deliberate, relationship-driven dealflow rather than volume. Public information about specific crypto portfolio companies is limited. The firm does not publish a comprehensive portfolio list or issue regular press releases about new deals.
Team
Jerry Yang is the firm's general partner and primary decision-maker. Yang co-founded Yahoo in 1995 with David Filo and served as CEO from 2007 to 2009. His reputation in venture circles rests largely on Yahoo's early investment in Alibaba – a $1 billion stake in 2005 that returned tens of billions of dollars. Beyond AME Cloud Ventures, Yang serves on various boards and is active in US-Asia technology bridge-building, particularly around data and enterprise software.
Public information about additional partners or investment staff at AME Cloud Ventures is limited. The firm appears to operate with a lean team structure typical of founder-led micro-funds.
Recent Activity
AME Cloud Ventures has maintained a low public profile through 2024 and into 2025–2026. No major new fund announcements or high-profile lead rounds have been disclosed in that window. The firm has not publicly commented on AI infrastructure or digital asset strategy, though Yang has spoken at conferences about the intersection of data and next-generation computing.
Given AME's historical focus on data infrastructure, any crypto exposure is likely concentrated in protocol or tooling layers – areas where data pipelines, indexing, or enterprise adoption intersect with blockchain – rather than speculative token plays.
For investors tracking AME Cloud Ventures, the most reliable public sources remain Crunchbase and SEC Form D filings. The fund does not maintain a public website as of the time of writing. Yang's broader public commentary can be found via TechCrunch and conference archives. Given the firm's deliberate opacity, verified deal data remains sparse – a pattern common among founder-run, relationship-first funds of its vintage.