Investing

X is the best source for financial news -- and hundreds of billions of dollars are deployed based on things people read here. We are building Smart Cashtags that allow you to specify the exact asset (or smart contract) when posting a ticker. From Timeline, users will be able to tap them to see its real-time price along with all mentions of that asset. We're aiming to collect feedback as we iterate toward a public release next month.

Happy birthday Bitcoin. 17 years since the genesis block.

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.

My conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy (@patrick_oshag), founder and CEO of Colossus & Positive Sum. 0:00 The Joy of Championing Undiscovered Talent 2:21 How One Tweet Changed David's Life 5:07 The Upanishads Passage That Shaped Patrick's Worldview 8:34 Growth Without Goals Philosophy 10:40 Why Media and Investing Are the Same Thing 28:41 The Search for True Understanding Through Biography 31:04 The Daniel Ek Dinner That Launched This Podcast 34:28 Making Your Own Recipe From the Ingredients of Great Lives 39:11 The Privilege of a Lifetime Is Being Who You Are 48:25 Bruce Springsteen's Battle With Depression and Self-Worth 53:21 Clean Fuel vs Dirty Fuel: The Source of Your Ambition 57:03 Professional Learners: The Unfair Advantage of Podcasting 1:00:18 Relationships Run the World 1:06:30 The Origin Story of Invest Like the Best 1:08:05 Building Colossus: Why Start a Magazine in 2025 1:14:01 People Are More Interested in People Than Anything Else 1:17:32 Finding Jeremy Stern and Hiring Through Output 1:23:40 Learn, Build, Share, Repeat 1:30:07 The Daisy Chain: How Reading Books Led to Everything 1:30:32 Red on the Color Wheel: Sam Hinkie's Observation 1:37:13 Finding Your Superpower and Becoming More Yourself 1:42:57 Repetition Doesn't Spoil the Prayer: Teaching as Leadership 1:46:02 Life's Work: A Lifelong Quest to Build Something for Others 1:49:51 The Ten Roles Game and What Matters Most 1:57:03 Husband, Father, Grandfather: The Roles That Endure 1:59:48 The Kindest Thing: Tim O'Shaughnessy and Meeting Lauren 2:05:11 Conclusion Includes paid partnerships.

you're NGMI if you don't apply to these vc funds investing in pre-seed and seed right now: - @AforeVC ($100k–$1M pre-seed) - @PrecursorVC ($100k–$500k pre-seed) - @firstround ($500k–$3M seed) - @pearvc ($250k–$2M pre-seed and seed) - Soma Capital ($100k–$500k pre-seed) - @southpkcommons ($400k for 7% + up to $600k follow-on) - Floodgate ($500k–$2M pre-seed and seed) - @Initialized Capital ($1M–$3M seed) - @2048vc ($250k–$500k pre-seed) - @RarebreedVC ($250k–$500k pre-seed) - @forumventures ($100k–$500k B2B pre-seed) - @AmplifyPartners ($500k–$2M pre-seed and seed) - @svangel ($250k–$1M seed) - @BoxGroup ($250k–$1M pre-seed and seed) - @homebrew ($500k–$1.5M seed) - @chapterone ($250k–$1M pre-seed and seed) - @basecasevc ($250k–$1M seed) - @uncorkcap ($500k–$2M seed) - @costanoavc ($500k–$3M seed) - @GreylockVC (SAFE note + $500k+ in credits) - @sequoia (scout and Arc checks starting ~$500k) - @a16z (scout pre-seed, $1M+ seed) - @lightspeedvp ($500k–$2M seed) - @BessemerVP (seed starting ~$500k) - @Global_Founders ($250k–$1M pre-seed and seed) - @AntlerGlobal ($100k–$250k for ~8–10%) - @BoostVC (up to $500k for ~15%) what else?

Which accelerators should every pre-seed founder consider first these days?

Big fintech news: @mercury is officially launching Mercury Personal to general availability! After a limited beta that started last year (April '24), Mercury is making their product available to all. The early traction was impressive: - Beta users average $80K+ balances (vs ~$60K US average) - 50% are existing Mercury business customers - 50% are entirely new to Mercury It costs $240/year but gives users access to all of the following: - High-yield savings (5x+ national average APY) - Built-in investing via Mercury Invest - Up to $5M+ FDIC insurance - Shared access with customizable permissions - Joint accounts (up to 4 people) - Multiple physical/virtual debit cards with custom limits - Free domestic wires & ACH - Global ATM fee reimbursements - Automated savings & cash flow tools https://businesswire.com/news/home/20251211260682/en/Mercury-Launches-Premium-Consumer-Banking-for-Builders-and-Founder…

small life update! i’ve joined Andreessen Horowitz’s @a16z venture scout program! they are essentially letting me manage a little bit of money to write checks into startups. super grateful for the opportunity and excited to begin my angel investing career with the institutional backing of a firm as storied as Andreessen Horowitz (early into facebook, twitter, airbnb, lyft, slack, coinbase and many more) big thank you to @dhaber for the connection and opportunity i’ve had a little success with investing in public equities, I have no idea if any of those skills could translate to the private markets. investing at pre-seed/seed requires a different paradigm as there are no numbers, financials, track-record, and quite frankly there may not even be a product – it really is a bet on the founder and their vision. having said that, if you are building something really cool and raising money, I’d love to hear about it. please email amit@akcomms.com. you can include anything you have whether that is a deck, one pager, etc. i’ve also built out a website that anyone can read to get a sense of how i think of investing in general and the 5 startups I’ve invested in over the past year (one has 20x’ed, one has 10x’ed, the other 3 just finished their seed round last month) no clue if I will be good at this but I appreciate a16z for the opportunity and hopefully we can try to find the next uber or robinhood being built in the early days – excited to see any pitches and please don’t hesitate to reach out! angel investing philosophy below!

BREAKING: Elon Musk's xAI announces it has raised $20 billion in a Series E round, exceeding expectations of $15 billion. Nvidia is listed as "strategic investor" to support "buildout of the largest GPU clusters in the world." We are still early.

Ray Dalio: We are 80% of a bubble.

a16z: The Power Brokers There is this story about Marc Andreessen that I think perfectly captures a16z. in 2015, when New Yorker writer Tad Friend sat down to breakfast with Marc Andreessen while writing Tomorrow’s Advance Man. Friend had just heard from a rival VC who wanted to get a word in: that a16z’s funds were so large, and ownership percentages so small1, that to get 5-10x aggregate returns across its first four funds, they’d need their aggregate portfolio to be worth $240-480 billion. “When I started to check the math with Andreessen,” Friend writes, “He made a jerking-off motion and said ‘Blah-blah-blah. We have all the models—we’re elephant hunting, going after big game!’” The aggregate portfolio did not end up being worth $240-480 billion. a16z Funds 1-4 had a total enterprise value of $853 billion at distribution or latest post-money valuation. Since distribution, Facebook alone has added $1.5 trillion in market cap. Some form of this pattern keeps playing out: a16z makes a crazy bet on the future. Those in the know say it’s stupid. Wait some years. Turns out it’s not stupid! Which is why, as a16z announces $15 billion in fresh funds, it is probably a mistake to dismiss them as greedy or stupid. It's probably worth understanding just exactly what IT'S TRYING TO BUILD. That's what I do in today's not boring deep dive: a16z: The Power Brokers

I’m thankful I got to make up a job where I read, write, invest, spend time with my family, go down whichever rabbit hole is pulling me in, and be the dumbest person in any conversation I’m in.

vc website: "we invest pre-seed, and help you go from zero to one" vc response: "we like what you're building, but you're a bit too early for us"

If you invested at the peak of the Nasdaq in March 2000, it would have been roughly 18 years before you were whole again: 15 years before the index reached the same point, plus another 3 for inflation.

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng’s quantitative hedge fund generated returns of more than 50% last year

BREAKING: Elon Musk’s net worth surges to a record $749 billion after Delaware’s Supreme Court reinstates his 2018 pay package. He is now worth 3 TIMES the second richest person in the world.

2025 as an entrepreneur: Earned $885K with my startups Launched 3 new startups Built a $780K SaaS Made $147K in the stock market Got 107K followers on 𝕏 Read 10 books Traveled to 9 countries Exercised for 340+ days Gained 4kg of muscles Walked 4.2M steps Top 1% sleep score on WHOOP Reached 57.4 mg/kg/min VO₂ max Reached <18 yo biological age Drank 0L of alcohol Spent 365 days with my wife I hope 2026 unfolds like 2025: peace of mind, discipline, more startups. Happy New Year

Breaking News: SpaceX offered to buy shares from employees in a deal that would value it at around $800 billion as it prepares to go public.

A few early employees repeatedly pick top 1% startups as good - if not better - than the best VCs. It was so fascinating to interview them with @lennysan https://lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-spot-a-top-1-startup-early… @bobmcgrewai @cjc @soleio @rsms @seanrose

I prefer cash in the bank versus valuation on paper.