矽谷創投業者 今面臨世代交替

Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn and a longtime venture capitalist, is no longer the public face of the venture firm Greylock. Michael Moritz, a force at Sequoia Capital for 38 years, officially separated from the investment firm last summer. And Jeff Jordan, a top investor at Andreessen Horowitz for 12 years, left in May.

領英創辦人兼長期創投業者霍夫曼不再是創投公司Greylock的代言人。莫里茲在紅杉資本效力38年，去年夏天正式跟這家投資公司分手。喬丹在安德立森霍洛維茲當了12年的頂級投資者，於5月離開。

They are among the most recognizable of a generation of Silicon Valley investors who are getting out of venture capital at the end of a lucrative 15-year upswing for the industry.

他們是一個世代矽谷投資者當中最知名的幾位，在這個產業利潤豐厚的15年上升期結束時離開創業投資。

Many more are leaving. Investors at Tiger Global, Paradigm, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Emergence Capital and Spark Capital have all announced plans to step back. Foundry Group, a venture firm in Boulder, Colorado, that has backed 200 companies since 2006, said in January that it would not raise another fund.

還有更多人離開。老虎全球基金、Paradigm、光速創投、新興資本與星火資本都有投資者宣布計畫退出。科羅拉多州波德的創投公司鑄造集團2006年起已經贊助200家公司，一月稱不會籌集另一輪資金。

Taken together, the steady thrum of departures has created a sense that venture capital — a $1.1 trillion corner of finance that invests in young, private companies, sometimes spawning enterprises such as Apple, Google and Amazon — is in a moment of transition.

綜合來看，持續不斷的離職讓人感覺到創投業正處於一個轉型時刻。這是個價值1.1兆美元的金融領域，投資於初創私人公司，有時催生了蘋果、谷歌與亞馬遜等企業。

“We’re at a tipping point,” said Alan Wink, a managing director of capital markets at EisnerAmper, which provides advisory services to venture capital firms. While there have been waves of retirements in the past, he said this one was more pronounced.

為創業投資公司提供諮詢服務的EisnerAmper資本市場董事總經理溫克說，「我們正處於一個轉捩點」。雖然過去出現過退休潮，他說這一次更明顯。

The turnover creates an opening for new investors to step up, potentially shifting who the power players are in Silicon Valley. That may also change the calculus for young companies as they decide which venture firms to seek money from.

這次變動為新投資者向前邁進創造機會，可能改變矽谷的權力玩家。這也可能改變初創公司決定向哪些創投公司尋求資金時的考量。

Yet the latest generation of investors faces a startup investment landscape that has become more challenging. Few venture capital funds are reaping the kinds of enormous windfalls — which come from startups going public or being bought — that can secure an investor’s reputation.

然而，最新一代投資者面對一個已變得更有挑戰性的新創投資格局。很少創投基金正在獲得夠龐大的橫財可確保投資者的名聲，這些橫財來自新創企業上市或被收購。

Today’s up-and-coming venture capitalists are waiting for their version of those winners. Some of the most highly valued startups — such as OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company valued at $86 billion — are in no hurry to go public or sell. And the frenzy around generative AI could take years to translate into big wins.

如今嶄露頭角的創投業者，正在等候自己版本的贏家。一些估值最高的新創企業，例如估值為860億美元的人工智慧公司OpenAI，都不急於上市或出售。而圍繞著生成式人工智慧的狂潮，可能需要多年才能轉化成巨大勝利。

“We’re in this period of reset, based on where the technology is and where it’s going,” said David York, an investor at Top Tier Capital, which invests in other venture capital firms. “These stars will emerge.”

投資其他創投公司的Top Tier Capital投資者約克說，「我們正處於重置時期，取決於技術現狀跟發展方向。這些明星將會出現」。

面子或裡子？烏克蘭為小成果不惜血戰

Ukrainian soldiers spent hours ducking in trenches as artillery exploded around them, then dashed for the safety of an armored personnel carrier — only to be chased through the open rear ramp of the vehicle by an exploding drone.

隨著火砲在他們周圍爆炸，烏克蘭官兵躲在壕溝數小時，接著衝向一輛裝甲運兵車避難，結果卻被一架自殺無人機一路追到運兵車打開的後車門。

“All I could see were sparks in my eyes,” said one of the soldiers, a sergeant, recounting how the pursuing drone blew up, leaving him and his team wounded but somehow still alive. He asked to be identified only by his first name, Oleksandr, according to military protocol.

這群烏軍中的一名中士，回想追趕他們的無人機如何爆炸，讓他和同袍受傷卻僥倖生還的經過時說，「當時我能看到的只有火花」。根據軍事規約，他要求只透露自己名叫歐雷山大。

Fighting on the plain in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, where Oleksandr’s vehicle was hit earlier this year, has raged for 10 months now in two phases: first with Ukrainian forces on the offense, and now on defense, as Russia escalates attacks on the area where Ukraine gained ground in last summer’s counteroffensive.

歐雷山大的裝甲運兵車今年稍早在烏南札波羅熱州平原被擊中，當地戰鬥已持續10個月，分兩個階段：首先是烏軍進攻，隨著俄軍加強攻擊烏軍去年夏季反攻收復的區域，現在烏軍採守勢。

Military analysts have described Ukraine’s strategy as “hold, build and strike” — holding the line in the country’s southeast, replenishing its units with fresh troops and hitting back with long-range drones attacks on oil refineries and military logistics targets inside Russia.

分析家曾形容烏軍的策略是「守住、建立和打擊」，守住烏國東南部防線、為軍隊補充生力軍，並以遠距無人機反擊，攻擊俄羅斯境內煉油廠和軍事後勤目標。

Ukraine recaptured the village of Robotyne last summer, in the high-water mark of a counteroffensive that not only failed to achieve a breakthrough, but left the Russians in a strong enough position to start pushing back across the southern front.

烏軍去年夏季收復羅博蒂村，時值反攻全盛期。但這次反攻不僅未能突破，還讓俄軍維持足夠強大的態勢，在整個南部前線開始反擊。

Russian forces attacked the pocket around Robotyne and areas nearby nine times over the past day, the general staff headquarters said Tuesday. When the Ukrainians captured the village last year, they pierced a main Russian anti-tank defensive line; now the Russians are trying to push them back and fill in that gap.

烏克蘭總參謀部周二表示，俄軍過去一天攻擊羅博蒂村周圍和附近地區九次。烏軍去年收復該村落時，突破一道俄軍主要反戰車防線；現在俄軍正試圖反擊並填補這個缺口。

Like Bakhmut and Avdiivka, Robotyne, which had a prewar population of about 500 people, is now just ruins. Throughout the war, U.S. officials have repeatedly raised concerns that Ukraine was holding out too long in defending such places, committing soldiers and ammunition to cling to devastated towns with little strategic value.

就像巴赫姆特和阿夫迪夫卡，戰爭前人口約500人的羅博蒂村現在只剩廢墟。整個戰爭期間，美國官員一再提出疑慮，認為烏軍為了保衛這類地區堅持太久，投入太多兵力和彈藥堅守被摧毀且缺乏戰略價值的城鎮。

But for Ukraine, the area around Robotyne remains worth fighting for, at least for now.

但對烏克蘭而言，羅博蒂村周圍地區仍值得奮戰，至少目前是如此。

“At some point, symbolic becomes strategic,” Yurii Sak, a former adviser to the minister of defense, said of the fighting. Defending the gains of the offensive, he said, is “important for morale, it’s important for the support of the population, it’s important for the inner belief in our potential to win.”

烏國防部長前顧問薩克提及戰鬥時說，「有時候，象徵性質會變成戰略性質」。他說，守住成果「對士氣很重要、對民眾支持很重要，也對我們能獲勝的內在信念很重要」。