A Silicon Valley venture capital firm that invested early in startups such as Apple and Google went old school in the fourth quarter of 2021, buying more than $6 billion worth of stock in energy and industrial companies with a heavy emphasis on oil and gas pipelines.
Oil and gas partnerships
Sequoia Capital Israel, the Tel Aviv unit of Sequoia Capital Operations LLC, revealed new shareholdings in about 140 companies, according to quarterly SEC filings. Sixty of the companies were energy firms, which accounted for 89% of the Israeli unit’s $6.4 billion in new stakes in the quarter. The value of the new shares had risen to $7.1 billion by market close March 1.
Investment analysts were at a loss to explain putting so much capital to work in a sector that has recovered since COVID-19 hit in March 2020 but has underperformed for a decade.
“I have no idea,” New York University marketing professor and high-tech entrepreneur Scott Galloway said in an email. “Maybe a hedge against their ultra-long tech/low interest rate-dependent portfolio?”
Something new, something old
Sequoia Israel’s $6.4 billion in stock buys compared to parent Sequoia Capital’s $38.8 billion in public company holdings in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Many of those Sequoia Capital shares were the result of early venture capital bets by the firm over the past 50 years, including such brand names as Robinhood Markets Inc. and DoorDash Inc.
Neither Sequoia Capital nor Sequoia Israel responded to inquiries about the sudden shift in attention from investing in software developers such as BigPanda Inc. and Cloudshare Inc. to pipeline giants such as Energy Transfer LP and LNG terminal operator Cheniere Energy Inc.
Sequoia’s energy investments spanned the entire energy complex, from utilities such as NextEra Energy Inc. and Dominion Energy Inc. to upstream exploration and production companies such as America’s largest natural gas producer EQT Corp. and shale oil and gas pioneer Devon Energy Corp.
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