Copper Sky Capital raises $300 million second fund for AI startups

Copper Sky Capital is raising a $300 million second fund, and Jack Selby is turning two decades of Arizona connections into a broader push for early-stage AI startups. The firm, which was formerly called AZ-VC, rebranded on February 25, 2026, and said it would expand from Arizona into early-stage technology companies across North America with a sector-agnostic focus on AI software products.

Selby’s position gives Copper Sky a rare blend of regional access and old Silicon Valley power. He has lived in Arizona since 2002, sits on the Arizona Commerce Authority board, co-founded the Arizona Technology Innovation Summit with former Gov. Doug Ducey, and founded and chairs invisionAZ. Copper Sky also identifies Selby as a longtime managing director at Peter Thiel’s family office, Thiel Capital, in Los Angeles, and says he is a PayPal-era co-founder with Thiel of Clarium Capital Management.

Founded in 2021, Copper Sky is led by managing partners Jason Pressman and Selby and says it is built on the foundation of AZ-VC. Its first fund raised more than $115 million in committed capital, a base that now gives the firm room to chase larger AI deals while still pitching itself as a backer of founders in “non-obvious markets.” The firm has argued that venture capital has long underweighted regions outside Silicon Valley, New York and Boston, a claim that lands differently when one of its best-connected partners is rooted in Arizona.

That network mattered in the case of Etched, the AI chip startup that emerged from stealth on June 30. Etched said it had raised $800 million in total funding, reached a $5 billion valuation and secured more than $1 billion in customer contracts. The company also said it had booked $1 billion in contract orders for full systems powered by its chips. For Copper Sky, deals like that show how a firm built around Arizona relationships and Thiel-adjacent capital can gain early access to startups trying to break out before the biggest coastal funds move in.