Description
Andreessen Horowitz just raised a whopping new $15 billion in funding. And a $1.7 billion chunk of that is going to its infrastructure team, the one responsible for some of its biggest, most prominent AI investments including Black Forrest Labs, Cursor, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, Ideogram, Fal and dozens of others.
A16z general partner with the infra team Jennifer Li (who oversees such investments as ElevenLabs – just valued at $11 billion); Ideagram and Fal, has a clear thesis on where the team is looking to spend it’s latest chunk of cash.
Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Venture and Startups editor Julie Bort talked with Li about where a16z sees this AI super cycle going next, including the talent crunch hitting AI-native startups, why search infrastructure matters more than people think, and what kinds of companies are actually getting funded right now.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Where Li thinks the gaps still are when it comes to startups building an AI stack
What makes the most successful AI portfolio companies different
How tools like voice AI are rising in importance (yet still a bit uncomfortable to witness)
The AI startups she's still searching for and is ready to fund
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:01 Andreessen Horowitz's $1.7B infrastructure fund
05:00 Crossing the uncanny valley in AI-generated content
07:14 Agents finally becoming real in 2026
09:30 Building your first productivity agent
11:56 Why email agents aren't quite there yet
15:00 Which jobs will agents replace first?
18:05 The most unhinged opinion: Creativity belongs to humans
20:21 The limits of LLMs and the rise of world models
22:13 AI-designed chips are coming
24:00 The truth behind those viral ARR numbers
26:10 Hiring at AI speed: The talent shortage problem
28:47 The pricing mistake that became a big deal
29:21 The future of search for AI agents
30:45 Outro
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