Andreessen Horowitz launches AI school as college alternative

One blue-chip Silicon Valley investor has a proposal for young people who are questioning whether to attend college — enroll in AI school instead. 

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced on Tuesday that it is launching an academy, billed as a college alternative, for aspiring AI and other technology entrepreneurs. The unaccredited program, called the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, will focus its curriculum on teaching people how to build products and services from the ground up using AI.

Specifically, the academy will provide instruction geared to subjects such as designing AI systems, fundraising for startups, selling businesses and storytelling. Students won't take tests or be assigned homework but will instead focus on building real projects. Courses will be taught by tech entrepreneurs, with the academy naming OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as either an instructor or guest lecturer. 

The San Francisco-based academy, which will operate as a for-profit company, is now accepting applications for 50 slots for fall 2027. The program is one year long and tuition-free. 

"The training that worked for the Industrial Revolution isn't going to map perfectly onto the AI revolution, so somebody has to pioneer how you train a person for this new world," Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at the firm, also known as a16z, said in a statement. 

The academy notes that it's aimed at students who have just graduated from high school or those who have completed up to two years of coursework at an "elite university." 

A cohort of prominent technology companies and investors behind the AI boom seeded the program with a $42 million investment, including Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and Palantir.

Andreessen Horowitz is a major investor in AI startups. In August, the firm said it had raised $1 billion for a new venture fund that invests in the physical buildout of AI.  

The academy intends to seek regulatory approvals for a two-year program, starting in the fall of 2028. The tuition for the two-year program is expected to be similar to that of elite private universities.