Barclays Loses Tech Bankers; VCs Get Exits From Poolside, OpenRouter

Barclays has been losing tech bankers lately.

Last night I reported that Tim Luke, a veteran semiconductor analyst and banker, is leaving the British investment bank to join Morgan Stanley. His position as a vice chairman in technology investment banking will further strengthen Morgan Stanley’s strong semiconductor banking franchise.

Not too long ago, semiconductor dealmaking was overlooked by Wall Street, as software and internet matchmaking dominated headlines. But that’s changed thanks to the importance of chips in training and running AI. An increase in semiconductor M&A plus the initial public offerings of companies like Cerebras have put a premium on rainmakers with long-standing networks and knowledge in the industry.

Luke, a former adviser to ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron, advised on the 2023 IPO of SoftBank-controlled Arm at a $54 billion valuation, among other deals.

Other departures from Barclays’ chips group include Asad Mahmood, who was recently promoted to managing director covering semiconductor and quantum computing, and who left to join Bank of America, according to people familiar with the move. Rob Brass is joining Royal Bank of Canada as head of global semiconductors and electronics, Bloomberg reported.

Outside the chip sector, Matt Spence, who was head of venture capital banking at Barclays, is joining boutique bank Lazard to focus on defense tech and emerging technologies, according to people familiar with his move. Lazard didn’t respond to a request for comment.

And Morgan Stanley recently hired Barclays internet banker Emma Taylor. Carmen Chan, who’s also an internet banker, this week joined ZipRecruiter as chief financial officer.

It's not just Barclays. The moves extend a rash of senior personal changes among tech banking teams, which are trying to win business during a rebound in IPOs and M&A driven by the AI boom.

Barclays, for its part, has tapped new leaders for its investment bank. This month, it promoted global markets chief Adeel Khan to co-CEO of the investment bank with Mike Joo, previously co-head of global investment banking at Bank of America. Khan will continue overseeing global markets in London, while Joo will be based in New York and lead investment banking, with the roles taking effect from February 2027.

The pair reflect “the ambition we have for our investment bank,” wrote Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan in announcing their appointments.

Morgan Stanley has burnished its semiconductor credentials over the last year by advising Onsemi and Synaptics’ $7 billion all-stock merger as well as photonics startup Celestial AI’s $3.5 billion sale to Marvell Technologies. It was also lead IPO underwriter for Cerebras.

The investment bank has also carved a foothold in the lucrative business of advising major chip companies on financing their sales while limiting their debt. It most recently advised Broadcom on a $35 billion funding venture with Apollo and Blackstone, and Nvidia on its $105 billion credit backstopping deal with OpenAI and SB Energy.

Now over to Alix and Julia…

It’s been a good week for VC exits. First, Stripe sealed its deal to buy OpenRouter for a reported $7.5 billion. The acquisition is delivering a quick payout for investors in the three-year-old company.

And Nvidia is paying $6 billion in a licensing deal for Poolside, the former coding assistant startup that last year shifted to developing foundation models and developing a data center.

According to Newcomer, which reported on the Poolside deal, the startup will distribute the $6 billion to investors such as Felicis, Redpoint Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures. But investors may wait until the end of 2027 to get any of that cash, the publication said. We’re all ears as to why they need to wait so long!

The backers of OpenRouter don’t need to be so patient. Andreessen Horowitz, which first invested in OpenRouter’s seed round in 2025 as well as in OpenRouter’s two subsequent funding rounds, is returning roughly $2 billion on its investment, according to a person familiar with the investment.

Andreessen owned roughly 17% of the company, making the firm the largest shareholder in OpenRouter, the person said. Co-founder Alex Atallah was well known to the firm: he co-founded OpenSea, a once high-flying marketplace for nonfungible tokens backed multiple times by Andreessen, and he knew former Andreessen general partner Anjney Midha, a founder of AI compute firm AMP PBC, from Stanford University.

Menlo Ventures led OpenRouter’s 2025 Series A, when partner Matt Murphy took a board seat, and is returning around $500 million on its $50 million investment, according to a person close to the firm. The deal has been a career boost for partner Deedy Das, who was still a principal when he reached out to OpenRouter on behalf of the firm in 2024. Das, who was included in The Information’s Next GPs list in 2025, held a board observer seat at OpenRouter. —Alix Coutures and Julia Hornstein

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