Steve Jobs’ son watched his father battle cancer as a child; decades later, Reed Jobs is using a $1 billion fund to fight the disease

Reed Jobs was 12 when his father, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Eight years later, Steve died at 56, while Reed was an undergraduate at Stanford. The experience shaped Reed’s interest in cancer research, leading him to spend summers working in oncology laboratories as a teenager before eventually moving into healthcare investing. In 2023, he launched Yosemite, an oncology-focused investment firm that combines venture capital with philanthropic funding. Yosemite initially launched with more than $200 million. By early 2026, the firm had raised another $200 million-plus for its second fund and said it was managing more than $1 billion in assets.Reed Jobs’ childhood changed after Steve Jobs’ diagnosisReed became interested in cancer after seeing his father diagnosed when he was 12. Steve Jobs had been diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour, a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Reed later spent time working in oncology laboratories at Stanford as a teenager and initially entered Stanford as a pre-med student.Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56. Reed was 20 at the time and was studying at Stanford. After his father's death, Reed changed his major from pre-med to history. He eventually returned to healthcare through his work at Emerson Collective, the impact-investing and philanthropic organisation founded by his mother, Laurene Powell Jobs.Before creating Yosemite, Reed spent years working at Emerson Collective, where he focused on health and cancer-related initiatives. Yosemite emerged from that work and became an independent organisation in 2023.The firm announced its first close of more than $200 million in August 2023. Its model combines traditional venture investment with philanthropic grants for academic researchers. The aim is to support scientific work at an early stage and help promising discoveries develop into treatments and companies.Yosemite focuses exclusively on oncology and has invested in areas including gene therapy, immunotherapy, cancer vaccines, radiopharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence-powered drug discovery and earlier cancer detection.Yosemite now manages more than $1 billionYosemite's financial scale has grown substantially since its launch. In January 2026, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the firm had raised more than $200 million for its second fund and was seeking an additional $150 million. The new fund was backed by institutions and investors including Amgen, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MIT and John Doerr.Forbes reported that Yosemite's second fund was targeting $350 million. Following its latest funding round, the firm said it managed more than $1 billion in assets, including money overseen for hospitals, endowments and foundations.The firm's own announcement said its second fund had initially closed at more than $200 million and that Yosemite now managed more than $1 billion in assets.Reed Jobs wants cancer to become manageableReed has described a long-term goal of changing how cancer is treated. In an interview reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, he said he believes many cancers could eventually move from being fatal diagnoses to manageable, chronic diseases within his lifetime. Yosemite's current investments reflect that strategy. The firm has backed companies working on technologies ranging from gene therapies and cancer vaccines to AI-assisted drug discovery. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Yosemite was invested in about 20 companies and expected its new fund to support around 25 companies.The Yosemite name has a personal connectionThe name of Reed's firm also comes from an important chapter in his family's history. Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs married on March 18, 1991, at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. The ceremony was attended by about 50 people, and the wedding included a vegan cake shaped like Half Dome. The couple also went hiking after the ceremony. Reed was born in September 1991, months after his parents' wedding. He was their first child, followed by daughters Erin and Eve.Reed's career has therefore come full circle. His interest in oncology began during his father's illness, continued through his teenage work in cancer laboratories and later became part of his professional work at Emerson Collective.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.