Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a leading Silicon Valley venture capital (VC) firm in the United States, said on the 9th that it has raised a new $1.1 billion (about 1.49 trillion won) "Machine Age Fund" focused on investing in hardware and computing infrastructure for the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
Along with this, it expanded the fifth growth fund, formed early this year, to a total of $8.5 billion (about 11.49 trillion won).
The Machine Age Fund invests across the physical infrastructure required for AI. This includes hardware and systems to implement AI in real-world environments, such as core computing infrastructure like semiconductors, memory, networking, and storage, as well as data centers, Robotics, and home AI devices.
a16z noted that as the scope of AI use has rapidly expanded from conversational services to a variety of tasks such as inference and coding, the importance of computing infrastructure to support it is growing. It determined that new technological innovation and investment are needed across the AI infrastructure, including the existing hardware supply chain, power, cooling, and data transmission.
Thus far, a16z has invested in major corporations in hardware and physical infrastructure, including SpaceX, Anduril, and Waymo. With the launch of the Machine Age Fund, it will formalize hardware as a key investment area and plans to expand support for corporations in the AI infrastructure field based on its existing investment experience and global network.
The fifth growth fund primarily targets technology corporations that have secured product and market competitiveness and entered a full-fledged growth stage. The a16z growth organization has supported more than 100 growth-stage corporations over the past seven years.
It will also strengthen the "a16z Growth Platform" for growth-stage corporations. It plans to add functions that support full-fledged growth of corporations, including talent acquisition, global networks, media support, sales and marketing, and pricing strategy.
Raghu Raghuram, a16z general partner, said, "As AI adoption expands rapidly, innovation across the hardware and infrastructure that support it is becoming increasingly important," adding, "Through this fund, we will provide broad support from early-stage technology corporations to growth-stage corporations, and help them enter markets based on our global hubs, including the Seoul office."