The Machine Age Fund is a dedicated hardware venture fund from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), marking the firm's first dedicated hardware investment vehicle. It targets the physical infrastructure of AI, chips, memory, networking, storage, data centers, robotics, and home AI appliances.
The Machine Age Fund invests across the full AI hardware stack: compute infrastructure (chips, memory, networking, storage), full systems for running AI (data centers, robotics, home AI appliances), and the supporting build-out (cooling, materials, electrical, real estate) needed to keep pace with AI's physical demands.
The fund's thesis centers on today's AI hardware supply chain hitting physical and engineering limits: compute density per rack has grown 28x from an H100 rack to a Rubin rack, rack power needs are moving from 5–10 kW toward 1 MW within three years, and data center scale is moving from tens of MW to GW-scale campuses.
a16z raised $1.1B for the Machine Age Fund, marking hardware as an official new investment motion for the firm, previously known primarily for software investing. This is separate from a16z's broader $15B six-fund raise announced in January 2026 (American Dynamism, Apps, Bio + Health, Infrastructure, Growth, and other strategies including crypto).
The firm notes hardware deal flow has grown from a small share to over 20% of what it sees, and points to recent hardware bets, Unconventional AI, Nexthop, Volta, Atoms, Heron Power, and Mind Robotics,l plus earlier hardware investments (Skydio's Series A in 2016, SpaceX, Anduril's first check in 2019, and an early investment in Waymo's 2020 raise) as precedent for this dedicated vehicle.
Leadership
Investment Strategy
Backs the physical buildout of AI across chips, memory, networking, storage, data centers, and robotics, leveraging a16z's existing GTM, talent, and marketing infrastructure built for its software portfolio, now extended to hardware founders.
Notable Investments
Ben Horowitz — Co-Founder & General Partner
Martin Casado — General Partner
martin@a16z.com
Guido Appenzeller — Partner
gappenzeller@a16z.com
Shangda Xu — Investing Partner
sxu@a16z.com
David George — General Partner
dg@a16z.com
Raghu Raghuram — Managing Partner
rr@a16z.com
David Ulevitch — General Partner
du@a16z.com
Emily Bennett — Investment Partner
ebennett@a16z.com
Erin — General Partner
epw@a16z.com
Sarah Wang — General Partner
swang@a16z.com
Jennifer Li — General Partner
jli@a16z.com
Alex Immerman — General Partner
aimmerman@a16z.com
David Haber — General Partner
dh@a16z.com
Julie — General Partner
julie@a16z.com
United States
