Billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs Turned Her LLC Into a VC Machine

In the seven years since the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, his 55-year-old widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, has become one of the most high-profile philanthropists in the world. She’s donated tens of millions to innovative K-12 schools, stepped up her role in her longstanding charity helping underprivileged kids go to college and given multiple grants to investigative journalism outlets, in addition to acquiring a majority stake in the Atlantic magazine.

But Powell Jobs’s main organization, the Emerson Collective, has also become a quiet force in Silicon Valley for its less obviously altruistic investments. Since 2014, Emerson has backed more than 30 startups, according to research firm PitchBook, investing in a range of novel companies making everything from floating data centers to supersonic aircraft. Its portfolio even includes digital bulletin board site Pinterest Inc.