Andreessen Horowitz, popularly known by their monicker a16z, has spent nearly two decades in identifying, and investing in some of the most disruptive companies of this generation. The legendary investor is now launching ‘AI-native’ talent for some of these promising companies.
The investor is looking to launch the Horowitz Andreessen Academy. This will be a highly selective school that positions itself as a direct alternative to your classic four year college degree. The Horowitz Andreessen Academy, based in San Francisco is planning to enroll about 50 students in its first class in September 2027.
Horowitz Andreessen Academy is backed by $35 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and another $7 million from other investors. Among the founding corporate partners for this academy include Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and OpenAI. Other notable names include Anduril, Coinbase, Replit and Stripe.
Students can now start sending applications for the Founding Class Fellowship. This will be a one-year programme starting Fall 2027. It is worth mentioning that it will be tuition-free and includes travel and everything else to start with.
Everything after that, a two-year programme the Academy aims to launch in Fall 2028, pending regulatory approval. An important point to note is that it will cost roughly what an elite private university does.
“The bet is that there’s an opportunity to educate the next generation in a way that is kore future-forward, and that’s a big market opportunity,’ Gagan Biyani, a co-founder of $3.2 billion ed-tech unicorn Udemy who is now running the new Horowitz Andreessen Academy said. Higher education, he noted, is a $2 trillion industry. ‘We think there are lots of ways to turn this into a successful business.’
The Academy is structured around three things: Pursuits, Courses, and Co-ops. Understanding how this work is important before commencing the application process. Well, Pursuits are personal projects that students choose themselves. This can be thing such as startup ideas, rabbit holes, and quests.
You can view courses as short, high impact Programmes. This can be anywhere from two days to four weeks and should be taught by actual practitioners. Co-ops are simply immersive stints at real companies.
Founding Class Fellows get $50,000 in compute credits, a $5,000 travel and research budget, and no tuition bill. There are no grades, no tests, and no homework.
Biyani insisted that the school isn’t a rejection of the premise of higher education. “We believe in college,” he said. Instead, it is rejecting the idea that 18-year olds in SF are only valuable insofar as they have a startup idea to dedicate a decade to. Actually, they are looking to find the best and the brightest high schoolers.
The Academy’s homepage promises students will learn from the people ‘shaping the future,’ with a campus ‘buzzing’ from visits from Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Satya Nadella, Mira Murati, Fei-Fei Li, and Travis Kalanick.
The new project comes as Silicon Valley increasingly experiments with alternatives to conventional university education.
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