a16z

It's time to build.

Marc Andreessen: “The person who writes down the thing has tremendous power.” “There are so few people who will just write down the thing.” Source: @pmarca on How I Write with @david_perell

By Ben Horowitz @bhorowitz At Andreessen Horowitz, we just raised over $15B. With these new funds including American Dynamism ($1.176B), Apps ($1.7B), Bio + Health ($700M), Infrastructure ($1.7B), Growth ($6.75B), and other venture strategies ($3B), we raised over 18% of all venture capital dollars allocated in the United States in 2025. Why did we raise the money and how do we plan to invest it? At a16z, we believe that the best thing that a society can do for a person is to give them a chance. Give them a shot at a great life regardless of their circumstance, background, ethnicity, religion, gender or any other attribute. Give them a shot, a chance to contribute, a chance to do something larger than themself and make the world a better place. That’s the best we can do. Here's what I mean by "giving everybody a shot." It doesn't mean what it meant in Communist societies, when "an equally fair shot" ultimately resulted in no one getting a shot at all. It means that you have a chance to create opportunities for yourself and for others. This is why even if it is not totally fair, giving people a shot is a profound accomplishment for society and humanity. It is the gift that keeps on giving. The more people that take that chance and do something great, the better the world becomes for all of us. The country that has given people a shot at a great life more consistently than anywhere else is the United States. The system that has given people a shot more consistently than anywhere else is the American system. The result is that in the last 250 years, corresponding with the rise of the United States in the world, more people got a chance than anytime before in history. This has created a miraculous improvement in the human condition. So, at this moment of profound technological opportunity, it is fundamentally important for humanity that America wins. There is no other country that comes close to giving everyone a chance to grab that opportunity and build. If America fails to win technologically, it will lose economically, militarily, geopolitically, and culturally. And the entire world will lose as well. “Responsibility is a heavy responsibility” – Cheech As the American leader in Venture Capital, the fate of new technology in the United States rests partly on our shoulders. Our mission is ensuring that America wins the next 100 years of technology. That starts with winning the key architectures of the future – AI and crypto. It continues with applying those technologies to the key areas that generate human flourishing: biology, health, defense, public safety, education, and entertainment. And it culminates with the American government adopting these technologies to defend and advance American interests. If we fail to push the policies of the country in the right direction, America will likely lose its position as the global leader in technology. We have already seen the beginnings of this in both AI and crypto. And if America’s position as the global leader in technology slips, it’s not long before everything else slips with it. The technology landscape that we will be investing into is dynamic, innovative, and intensely competitive with China. We look forward to doing our part. We would like to thank our Limited Partners for their trust and believing in us over the past 16 years. We will invest in the best and the brightest entrepreneurs and help them to build generational companies. In doing so, we will work doubly hard to make sure the benefits go to America, the American people, and our many friends and allies around the world.

Announcing a16z Build: A dinner series and community for founders, technologists, and operators figuring out what they want to build next — and who they want to build with. Apply or nominate today: http://build.a16z.com