Andreessen Horowitz launches $1.1B fund for AI's physical infrastructure

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has launched a new fund, called “Machine Age,” with $1.1 billion raised. The firm says its goal is to “open the throttle and accelerate the physical buildout of AI.”

Unlike a16z’s typical focus on the scaling power of software, the new fund will target hardware — a swath the firm says spans everything from computer chips and memory to data centers and robots. In a post on its website, a16z said it wants to back “faster, more efficient systems,” “cheaper and higher-bandwidth memory across the memory hierarchy,” and “faster and more scalable interconnects between nodes and systems,” along with “power efficient edge devices” and the cooling, materials, electrical work and real estate needed to support that build-out.

The firm characterized AI as the “strongest tool ever developed for solving problems and bestowing abundance,” calling its advancement a “social and national imperative.”

Why it matters

The fund signals that a leading venture firm sees the next phase of AI competition shifting from model software to the physical capacity — chips, power, cooling and real estate — needed to actually run it at scale.