Japanet quadruples VC fund to $200M after early Anthropic and xAI bets deliver extraordinary returns

Japanet Holdings, a Japanese TV shopping company, has expanded its venture capital fund from $50M to $200M after early investments in Anthropic, xAI, SpaceX, and OpenAI through Pegasus Tech Ventures generated massive paper returns. Anthropic alone appreciated from a $550M valuation in 2021 to $380B in 2026. The move reflects a broader surge of Japanese capital into AI, with SoftBank committing $41B to OpenAI, Japan's government launching a $6.34B AI scheme, and AI infrastructure spending projected to hit $5.5B in 2026. The returns remain on paper as all key portfolio companies are still private, but the concentration of value in frontier AI firms is unprecedented in VC history.