Andreessen Horowitz has created a $1.1 billion fund for AI infrastructure

Andreessen Horowitz raised $1.1 billion for its new Machine Age Fund. The funds will be directed toward physical artificial intelligence infrastructure — including chips, memory, networking equipment, and data storage systems, as well as comprehensive AI systems ranging from data centers and robotics to consumer devices with artificial intelligence. The launch of the fund was announced by partners Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado, Raghu Raghuram, David Ulevitch, and David George.

In recent years, the share of hardware startups in the fund’s overall deal flow has grown from a small percentage to over 20%. Among recent portfolio companies in the hardware segment are Unconventional AI, Nexthop, Volta, Atoms, Heron Power, and Mind Robotics. Previously, the fund led a Series A investment in Skydio in 2016, invested in SpaceX, made its first investment in Anduril in 2019, and was among the first venture investors in Waymo’s 2020 funding round.

The hardware initiatives at a16z are overseen by Guido Appenzeller, formerly Chief Technology Officer of Intel’s Data Center Group, Raghu Raghuram and Martin Casado, who have long worked on data center systems software, Shangda Xu and David George, who lead AI infrastructure investments, and David Ulevitch and Erin Price-Wright, who oversee hardware investments and U.S. manufacturing projects under the American Dynamism initiative.

Source: a16z