Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is seeking to raise about $20 billion in what will be the largest fund in its history, capitalizing on the interest of investors around the globe in U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) companies. The firm, which is known informally as a16z, has told limited partners that the fund will be dedicated to growth-stage investments in AI companies and draw upon global investors keen on investing in American companies.
This comes amid the sweeping tariffs announced by President Donald Trump in April. In order to raise this staggering amount of capital, a16z has been pitching it around the world. International LPs see the fund as a way to invest their money more easily into American AI companies without restrictions, according to sources that talked to Reuters.
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Founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz announced their support for Trump, who is a Republican, during the 2024 presidential campaign, breaking their traditional support for Democratic candidates. This shift has been shared by several prominent Silicon Valley founders including Elon Musk.
While the firm is known for raising some of Silicon Valley’s largest investment vehicles, the new fund would represent a colossal step up in scale. It would test LPs’ interest in venture capital amid global economic turmoil and continue the debate over how scalable this asset class is while maintaining appealing returns.
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If successful, the fund would only be surpassed by SoftBank’s (9984.T) while opening new tab two Vision funds, a massive experiment by deploying unprecedented amounts of capital into the tech sector which has yielded mixed results.
SoftBank Vision Fund 1, launched in 2017, was a record-breaking $100 billion fund, while its successor Vision Fund 2, manages about $56 billion from SoftBank’s balance sheet. A16z’s largest fund so far is a $5 billion growth-stage fund it raised as part of a $9 billion fundraise it announced in early 2022.