# a16z

a16z, short for Andreessen Horowitz, is a major American venture capital firm founded in 2009, known for investing in technology startups and growth companies, with $90 billion in assets under management as of 2026.

a16z, officially Andreessen Horowitz, is an American privately-held venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the firm has become one of the most influential investors in the technology sector, particularly in [artificial-intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence). The name "a16z" derives from the 16 letters between the first letter of Andreessen and the last letter of Horowitz. As of January 2026, the company manages $90 billion in assets under management.

The firm invests across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, consumer products, cryptocurrency, gaming, fintech, education, and enterprise software, which encompasses cloud computing, security, and software as a service. It supports both early-stage startups and established growth companies, often taking significant stakes in firms developing [machine-learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning) and [generative-ai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai) technologies.

## Founding and growth

Between 2006 and 2010, Andreessen and Horowitz actively invested in technology companies, both separately and together, deploying $4 million across 45 startups, including Twitter. Their success as "super angel" investors led to the launch of their venture capital fund on July 6, 2009, with an initial capitalization of $300 million. In November 2010, despite a contracting venture capital field, the firm raised an additional $650 million for a second fund, bringing total assets under management to $1.2 billion within two years.

The firm continued to expand rapidly. By March 27, 2014, it managed $4 billion following the closing of its fourth fund at $1.5 billion. In January 2022, a16z raised $9 billion for its venture, growth-stage, and biotech-focused funds. In January 2026, it raised $15 billion across five new funds, pushing assets under management to at least $90 billion as of March 2026.

General partners include Jeff Jordan, Chris Dixon, Martin Casado, and Andrew Chen. Ex-VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram joined as general partner in October 2025. Margit Wennmachers served as operating partner from 2010 to July 2025, when she became partner emeritus. In March 2019, the firm opened an office in San Francisco.

## Investment strategy and influence

By 2012, Business Insider described a16z as "the most powerful and respected venture capital firm in Silicon Valley right now." The firm is often cited as the largest and one of the most powerful venture capital funds globally, with Marc Andreessen frequently regarded as a dominant, if controversial, figure in both Silicon Valley and politics. According to OfficeChai calculations up to October 2025, a16z has backed 32 unicorns since 2020, more than any other venture firm. By November 2025, its website listed 1,076 portfolio companies, with a disclaimer that these are not representative of all investments and that exits include acquisitions and IPOs.

Leslie Feinzaig noted in Fast Company that a16z and other large firms no longer act like traditional venture capital firms, investing beyond early-stage private companies into public equities, crypto tokens, and non-traditional assets. The firm also competes for obvious alpha rather than only contrarian bets.

A16z presents its primary political agenda as defending "Little Tech" (startups) against Big Tech incumbents. In April 2025, it launched the American Innovators Network with Y Combinator and AI companies like Anyscale, Exowatt, and Sourcegraph, representing "America's Little Tech ecosystem." John Mac Ghlionn of the Boston Globe described "Small Tech" as a cluster of Silicon Valley firms forming an "AI-driven military-industrial complex," with Palantir as its public face and a roster including Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic, Scale AI, and others bankrolled by Founders Fund and a16z.

## American Dynamism fund

In 2023, a16z launched a $600 million American Dynamism fund "with the broad aim of supporting companies building in the nation's interest." The fund has raised two funds totaling $1.8 billion, focusing on hard tech sectors serving national interest, including space, defense, manufacturing, and robotics. In 2024, the firm introduced the 12-month American Dynamism Engineering Fellows Program to recruit and train technologists. The annual American Dynamism summit gathers startup founders, investors, Members of Congress, and Defense Department officials; it is officially non-partisan and has partnered with Democratic defense officials like former Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.

The fund is managed by general partners Katherine Boyle, David Ulevitch, and Erin Price-Wright, with Ulevitch as leader. Connor Love joined the team in July 2026. Boyle, who previously interned at Founders Fund and joined General Catalyst in 2016, has been influential; her portfolio includes Hadrian, Apex Space (satellites), and Castelion (hypersonic weapons). Notable portfolio companies include Applied Intuition, which after its 2025 Series F ($600 million) reached a $15 billion valuation, applying AI software to autonomous driving for companies like Toyota and Porsche, and later expanding into defense applications for the US military.

## AI investments and focus

A16z has been a prominent investor in [artificial-intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) companies, backing firms such as [openai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai), [anthropic](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/anthropic), and [inflection-ai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/inflection-ai). The firm's investments span [large-language-model](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model) developers, [deep-learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/deep-learning) startups, and [neural-network](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neural-network) hardware companies like [cerebras](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/cerebras) and [groq](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/groq). It has also funded cloud infrastructure providers like [coreweave](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/coreweave), which specializes in AI workloads. The firm's focus on AI reflects its broader thesis that [generative-ai](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai) will transform industries, from enterprise software to defense. Through its American Dynamism fund, it supports AI applications in national security, including companies like Scale AI and Vannevar Labs.

## Categories
- venture-capital
- artificial-intelligence
- technology-investing
- silicon-valley

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/a16z
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-05T13:23:46.903333+00:00