Andreessen Horowitz

This week’s latest funding rounds. A new wave of founders is building AI for the industries that keep America running. From MEP engineering and drone motors to doctor’s offices, workplace productivity, and critical industrial operations. Backed by major Series A and seed rounds, these startups are applying AI to real-world infrastructure.

Marc Andreessen: "Everywhere we go, people want to talk about tech, they want to learn about tech." "When Ben wrote his book and went on a tour, it didn't matter what country he went to, thousands of kids show up and they want to learn how to do this." "The internet had a big impact there, which is, every kid anywhere in the world now can watch Peter Thiel talks and our podcast and everything else." "Global knowledge is way up. Global enthusiasm is way up. Relevance to societies is way up." "There's human capital everywhere... The startup process is a way to especially get smart young people to kind of do ambitious things."

WFH is predictive of a declining share of junior hiring (and “low-experience” job posting), even when controlling for AI. At the same time, all the predictive power of AI-exposure goes away, once you control for WFH. Put it all together, and there’s at least some evidence that when firms have the ability to hire remotely, they tend to favor experienced workers, at the expense of junior hires.

For any office space built in the last decade, net-absorption (i.e. newly leased - vacated space) is dramatically positive. For anything older than that, the picture is relatively grim: more office space has been vacated than leased. In other words, office tenants are flocking to the best new assets, and leaving the older stuff behind. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a bargain on office space, and you like those pre-2015 vibes, well, you’re in luck.

Today, I'm excited to join Andreessen Horowitz as a General Partner and Head of Global Affairs. Throughout almost twenty years in government, at the National Security Agency and The White House, I saw firsthand how quickly technology evolved into one of the central pillars of geopolitical influence, industrial capacity, and national security. This is my next chapter in the mission of keeping America secure at home, ensuring technological innovations are adopted to keep us safe, and working with our allies to build a more secure and prosperous future. Today, as the U.S. and China compete on the global stage, the spread of technology is tinged with geopolitics and more fragmented. What I hear most consistently from government colleagues around the world: our allies are no longer interested in a simple buyer-seller relationship. They want to build with us — joint ventures, shared capability, co-production. Our recent visit to Japan, where we met with Prime Minister Takaichi, Minister of Economy Akazawa, and national security and business leaders, underscored this shift, as we explored partnerships in maritime autonomy, AI, and cybersecurity to support Japan’s economic growth and military modernization goals. Ensuring we and our allies build on a common technology foundation, and scaling the adoption of AI and new technologies globally, is one of the most consequential strategic imperatives of this moment. There is a lot of work ahead. As we like to say at Andreessen Horowitz, it's time to build; together. Link to my full announcement in the comments.

Investor Relations is now Global Partnerships at a16z. Technology used to be a small segment of the economy. Now it’s how countries dominate - economically, militarily, culturally. That means how founders win is changing. And what founders want from their VCs is power. They need access to sovereign and institutional partners, regulatory relationships, and distribution in markets that matter geopolitically. That's what Global Partnerships is built to do. In practice, that looks like this: Luma: Facilitated a partnership between Luma and @HUMAIN AI, who led their $900M Series C and are now partnering on a 2GW AI Supercluster in Saudi Arabia. Kalshi: Engaged senior international government officials around prediction markets including the importance of establishing a clear regulatory framework to ensure market integrity, investor protection, transparency, and responsible innovation within the sector. Tokyo: Announced our new office alongside collaboration opportunities with Japanese companies and the Ministry of Defense during a recent meeting with Prime Minister Takaichi. For our Limited Partners, this is a direct extension of what a16z has always stood for, helping our founders win, now on a global stage. For our Founders, it means having a partner who can open doors at the highest levels of sovereign and institutional capital and support international scale. More on what this means for LPs and founders linked in the comments.

Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood’s principles for building a company.

In 2012, Dylan Field and Evan Wallace co-founded Figma with the idea that web design could live in a browser. The two spent four years building in stealth before publicly launching what would become the defining design tool of the modern internet. Figma grew from a single browser-based design app into a full platform spanning FigJam, Dev Mode, Slides, and most recently Figma Make, an AI-driven product builder. Today, Field sits at the center of a unique moment in software: a designer-first founder running a publicly traded company that millions of teams treat as critical infrastructure, while betting that taste, craft, and AI-native tooling will define the next generation of how software gets built.

At Andreessen Horowitz, we believe that the best thing a society can do for a person is to give them a chance. America, alongside her allies, does this more consistently and successfully than anywhere else. And today, as nations around the world rebuild, rearm, and rethink how they provide for their citizens, we have an opportunity to repay that gift forward. We have spent the last three years intentionally building bridges in key international markets. Today, we are announcing a new set of global initiatives. Anne Neuberger joins as General Partner and Head of Global Affairs. Over nearly two decades at the NSA and the White House, Anne worked at the intersection of defense, intelligence, and emerging technologies. Few people have had a closer view of how technology evolved into a central pillar of geopolitical influence and national security. Raghu Raghuram will lead our effort to help Growth companies scale internationally. What you want from your VC is the ability to confer power, not just advice. We have built this network over years as the most powerful “push-from-behind” force in venture. Investor Relations is now Global Partnerships, led by Jen K.. The mandate: connect founders to the capital and relationships they need to scale globally, faster. From the outset, a16z has been organized as a firm, not a fund, with one purpose: to help founders build amazing businesses, as much as possible. Today there is an added mission. A call to help not just founders, but America and her allies. We're answering that call. Read more about our global mission linked in the comments.