- Andreessen Horowitz has raised $1.1B for its newest fund, the Machine Age Fund, to accelerate the physical buildout of AI, calling it a social and national imperative.
- The fund will invest in all computer infrastructure for AI, including chips, memory, networking, storage, and full systems from data centers to robotics to home AI appliances.
- Compute density per rack increased by 28 times from an H100 rack to a Rubin rack.
- Rack power moved from 5-10 kilowatts to 100-250 kilowatts for current systems and is expected to reach 1 megawatt within three years.
- The fund's portfolio spans beyond semiconductors, including companies like Unconventional AI, Nexthop, Volta, Atoms, Mind Robotics, Skydio, SpaceX, Anduril, and Waymo, covering drones, launch vehicles, defence hardware, and autonomous vehicles.
- Data centres are scaling from tens of megawatts to hundreds, with some campuses approaching gigawatt scale, driving a need for financing on a different order.
- Key infrastructure upgrades are needed: compute density per rack increased by 28X from H100 to Rubin, rack power moves from 5-10 kW to 1MW in 3 years, data center scale moves to GW-scale campuses, and power sources expand beyond grid-only.
Andreessen Horowitz has launched the Machine Age Fund, raising $1.1 billion to invest in AI infrastructure, including chips, memory, and data centers. The firm highlighted a significant 28-fold increase in compute density per rack from Nvidia's H100 to Rubin racks, with power requirements escalating from 5-10 kW to 100-250 kW and projected to reach 1 MW in three years.13
The fund aims to address the urgent need for innovation in AI's physical layer, as the demand for advanced computing capabilities surges. “Everything needs an upgrade, now,” the firm stated, emphasizing the necessity for faster, more efficient systems and higher-bandwidth memory.
The fund's focus extends beyond semiconductors to include full systems for AI, from data centers to robotics and home appliances. “The common thread among all of these layers of the AI stack is that they are all hitting the wall of today’s supply chain capability,” the firm noted, indicating a critical moment for investment in hardware.
In recent years, hardware startups have surged, now accounting for over 20% of the firm's deal flow. Notable investments include companies like Unconventional AI, Nexthop, and Volta, reflecting a strategic pivot towards hardware innovation.567
The Machine Age Fund arrives amid a transformative period in computing, with the firm poised to capitalize on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape AI infrastructure.
“The fund will target chips, memory, networking, storage, and full systems from data centers to home AI appliances, with rack power expected to reach 1 megawatt within three years. It builds on a $1.7bn Infrastructure Fund 2 and a $1.18bn American Dynamism Fund 2, with a Series A into Netris signaling the same direction.”
Andreessen Horowitz
