Andreessen Horowitz Targets AI Supply Crunch With New $1.1 Billion Hardware Fund

Andreessen Horowitz has raised $1.1 billion for a new fund that aims to accelerate the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure by investing in founders who are “reinventing AI hardware,” the venture capital firm said in a Friday (Aug. 28) blog post.

The Machine Age Fund will invest in computer infrastructure on which AI runs, including chips, memory, networking and storage, as well as full systems for running AI, such as data centers, robotics and home AI appliances, according to the post.

“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, and the limits of physics and computer science,” Andreessen Horowitz said in the post. “So there is an urgent need for innovation and investment, and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rearchitect them as platforms, all the way down to the electricity.”

The AI industry needs faster, more efficient systems; cheaper and higher-bandwidth memory; faster and more scalable interconnects between nodes and systems; power-efficient edge devices; and cooling, materials, electrical and real estate buildout, according to the post.

“The hardware industry supply side is used to growing 20% to 30% per year at most; not the triple-digit growth that’s needed to catch up with demand,” the company said. “This will change, quickly.”

It was reported in January that Andreessen Horowitz committed an additional $1.7 billion to a fund for AI infrastructure projects that it set up in 2024 with $1.25 billion.

That fund focused on any AI software targeted toward technical buyers and not consumers, including foundational models, networking security and coding applications.

Andreessen Horowitz Co-Founder Ben Horowitz said at the time that it was too soon to make any judgments about the fund’s performance, which is usually judged in terms of decades, but that so far the fund was “one of the best funds, like, I’ve ever seen.”

Abu Dhabi-based technology investment firm MGX announced July 1 that it raised $49 million for its new MGXFund I to make investments across the AI technology stack.

USD.AI said Friday that it secured a $100 million stablecoin-based debt facility from digital asset platform Bullish to power its GPU financing ecosystem.