a16z
a16z is a venture capital firm co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, positioned by its own founder as "a media company that makes money through investing" — a model built on pairing high-volume ideological content with concentrated capital deployment . The firm has developed what critics call a "narrative-investment" flywheel: Andreessen publishes sweeping manifestos like *Why AI Will Save the World* or *Why Web3 Matters* to define an era's technological stakes, then a16z leads or co-leads massive rounds in the same sectors — $1.5 billion for Character.AI's Series A, $22 billion then $45 billion for crypto funds, $19 million for AI video startup Viggle — effectively converting attention into valuation . This content-to-capital pipeline, as one analysis put it, lets a16z "manufacture the K-line" and become "the dealer" in markets it helped create . The firm's recent portfolio spans AI infrastructure (Anysphere), consumer applications (Captions, Sekai), and what some observers describe as attention-economy bets where the investment itself functions as marketing (Cluely) . Politically, a16z has become an active force in U.S. tech policy discourse; Andreessen and Horowitz publicly backed Trump's 2024 campaign, framing it as defense of "little tech" against regulatory overreach .
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Gen Alpha Is Embracing 'Brainrot,' and Douyin Is Already the Previous Generation's Product | 100 'Social Product' Hot Takes from Wapoo Founder Yang Mingyu
"My ambition is to build a product with 330 million daily active users. Why not?"
"Model capabilities are already sufficient—if we're going to compete, compete on infra" | Interview with Guanlan Dai: Founder of Runta
"Model capabilities are already sufficient — if we're going to compete, let's compete on infra" | A conversation with Guanlan Dai: Founder of Runta
Hands-On Review | Seedance 2.5: What's Actually Changed From 2.0 to 2.5
Where Does Seedance 2.5 Stand at the Crossing?
WAAC Days Don't Matter, Nights Are When the Real Talk Happens — We Partied Till Midnight at the Hottest After Party
a16z's Latest Batch of AI Projects: AI Startups Are Starting to Grind Through the Dirty, Unsexy Work
I quickly reviewed a recent batch of a16z Speedrun projects and wanted to share my findings. These projects span tax filing, construction bidding, litigation, meetings —
Who's Buying Ads Inside ChatGPT? | A Conversation with Nexad COO Harry Zhou
The Night SpaceX Went Public: 18 Stories Behind the Miracle
A raging fire cooking oil — behind the scenes of a grand feast.
A24 Partner, Vercel CEO, a16z All Pre-Ordered This AI Bookmark
Create something truly compelling.
Even More Legendary Than Amen Ring Is Its Founder
It's not called Amen Ring anymore — please call it: Glorify Ring.
2026: The End of Software, the Fall of Engineers, the Death of Mediocrity
The real beginning comes after the end.
This Chinese Team Built a "Gaming TikTok" Overseas
Say one sentence and make a game — Aippy wants to become the next TikTok.
Three Months of Pitfalls: Our Agent Harness Practice and Reflections
Harness should be driven by business needs.
When AI Makes Individuals More Productive, Why Don't Companies Get Stronger? | Booming Talk
The key to AI Native isn't upgrading your tools — it's rewriting your organization.
The Sora Shutdown: AI Enters the "Brutal Reckoning" | Yunqi Tech π
The Disappearance of a Viral Hit
2026: A Letter to AI Founders — on Generosity, Cruelty, and Fog
Is AI entrepreneurship entering its "worst" era?
The Apps Trying to Become the Next Douyin
If Douyin had been born in the AI era.
"Deep Principle" Closes Series A2 Round, Joins OpenAI and Others in *Science* to Discuss AI4S Exploration | Linear Portfolio
AI4S shouldn't stop at the "selling shovels" stage.
After OpenClaw Went Viral, Here Are the Startup Signals We're Seeing
What entrepreneurial directions does it open up?
StepFun Closes New 5 Billion Yuan Funding Round: Racing for Endpoints, Crunching Numbers, and the Ultra-Marathon Ahead
StepFun has raised 5 billion yuan in fresh funding, setting a new single-round record for the sector over the past 12 months, as the battle for end-user devices heats up.
vLLM Team Launches Inferact and Closes $150 Million Seed Round, with ZhenFund Leading First Round
Building a world-class AI inference engine to accelerate the progress of the AI industry.
Where Did the Money Go? Who's Still Writing Checks? A 2025 VC Debrief With Jing Liu
VC takes a certain amount of instinct.
Where Did the Money Go? Who's Still Writing Checks? A 2025 VC Debrief with Jing Liu New Consensus and Undercurrents Among China's VCs
Zhu Haoyu, After Hosting China's Largest Hackathon | elselier
He wants to turn the Agent into an iMessage account.
What Did He See? | A Conversation with Zhang Fan: Former COO of Zhipu AI, Founder/CEO of Yoolee AI — Why He's Convinced AI's Opportunity Lies in ToB
"Treat AI as a person.
2025 AI Scene: What We Witnessed and Imagined This Year
There is no turning back — the only way forward is through.
When Intelligence Starts Devouring Labor | Vital Views
Counselor Vitality
a16z is a media company.
VC as Media
Please Help, AI! Solving the "Hard and Expensive to See a Doctor" Problem | A Conversation with Wang Guoxin: Chief Scientist, JD Health Exploration Research Institute
Ensure everyone has access to the same level of medical care.
Deep Dive: a16z's Global Top 100 AI Apps — New Patterns and Trends | Yunqi Techπ
It's not just about who's fastest — it's about who can stick around.
2025 Silicon Valley AI Mid-Year Review: Serial Acquisitions, Big Tech Talent Wars, and Who Will Break Out | A Conversation with Fusion Fund Founding Partner Lu Zhang
Money is cheap; time is what actually matters.
The essence of Cluely is crypto token issuance.
The feeling of prosperity is back 😭
Head AI reminds me of Miraculous Department Store.
"Swallows return to familiar haunts" — or more fully, "Swallows return, as if from times gone by." This is a line from the Song dynasty poet Yan Shu's *Washing Creek Sand* (*浣溪沙*), expressing a bittersweet sense of recognition and the cyclical return of things past, tinged with the melancholy that what returns is never quite the same.
"Potential Energy" Is the Moat for AI Products | Latest from a16z
You need to break the mold.
5Y View | Bill Gurley: How the AI Wave Is Reshaping the Structure of Primary Markets
The AI wave interrupted a market correction that should have happened, and China's cutthroat competitive environment will actually forge stronger companies.
Securing a16z Investment, They're Rebuilding Ad Systems with AI | A Conversation with Gen-Z CEO Jason Hu
How Is a Simple AI Meeting Notes App Worth $250 Million? | A Deep Dive into Granola's Product Philosophy
Granola found the optimal solution for "human-AI collaboration" with remarkable nuance.
"SEO's New King of the Grind": Pollo AI Founder Abiao on How to Do SEO, Work with Creators, and Run Paid Ads
SEO isn't rocket science, but it's not exactly simple either.
How a "Small but Beautiful" Team Built Asia's #1 AI Emotional Companion App | We Found 6 Reasons They Became a Dark Horse
LoveyDovey has precisely conquered the East Asian emotional market.
ByteDance's Pippit Quietly Tops Product Hunt | AI Marketing Startups' "Bloodbath" Begins
The tech giants' reach keeps getting longer.
Yunqi Capital Research | AI Applications 2025: New Technologies and Trends Analysis
Looking at Direction from First Principles
2025: The Year AI Gaming Goes Mainstream? | A 4,500-Word Efficient Roundup of Major Players' Latest Moves: Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo…
One of the shortest paths to AI commercialization: gaming.
Q1 AI Startup Funding Map: $43 Billion, Where Did 80% Go? | Yunqi Tech π
As of 2025, the AI funding boom shows no signs of cooling down.
Decoding the Global Top 100 AI Apps Ranking: AI Video Heats Up, Vertical Apps Monetize | Yunqi Capital Tech π
DeepSeek made AI an overnight national conversation, but which AI applications have truly gained widespread adoption? And which products have already achieved the "double win" of traffic and revenue?
Floodgate founding partner Mike Maples' year-opening podcast: How to invest in the next 100x startup
Every great startup exists to build a future that is destined to arrive.
A Conversation with Wang Lixing: The Biggest and Hardest Hurdle — Huaxing Has Already Cleared It
But my hair has also gone a lot grayer.
To AI Founders: In 2025, Go to These VCs for Funding | Debriefing a Year in Primary Markets with Jing Liu of "Waves"
"2024: Who's Still Actively Investing in AI?"
30,000-Word Transcript: A Google DeepMind Researcher on Deconstructing OpenAI o1 and the LLM+RL Paradigm | Z Talk
The most hardcore, no-fluff technical breakdown of o1.
Looking Ahead to 2025: What Innovation Opportunities Await the AI Industry? | FreeS Fund Report
Our Thinking on AI Technology Progress and Industrialization
AI in China ④: "My Interviewer Isn't Human? Isn't Human!" | A Conversation with Gongjun Liang: Founder of Hina AI
Crossing x Abotify x a16z: Let's Talk About the AI World 1,000 Days From Now at the Peking University Stanford Center | Beijing Offline Gathering
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Behind the Election, a Showdown Between 200 American Investors
Undercurrents are stirring.
The AI Engineer's Guide: Who Am I, Where Did I Come From, Where Am I Going? | A Conversation with SiliconFlow Founder Jinhui Yuan and Indie Developer idoubi
Ambition, curiosity, and the freedom to roam.
Apple Rumored to Launch Desktop Robot and AI-Powered iPhone
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a16z Releases Global Top 100 AI Apps List: ByteDance Shines, Dating and Cross-Modal Apps on the Rise
New shifts, new opportunities, new ambitions.
Limitless Founder: The Full 30,000-Character Interview — A 7-Minute Pitch, Thousands of Investor Inquiries, and the Fundraising Secrets of a Startup | Z Talk
Only three or four things truly determine whether a company succeeds or fails.
Yunqi Research Select | Mid-Year AI Industry Review: Ten Hopes and Heartbreaks in the Year of Implementation
How Does the Balance Between Cost and Effectiveness Tip?
The Only Thing That Matters for Startups Is PMF | Z Talk
The number one killer of startups is lack of market.
OpenAI Releases GPT-4o mini: Faster and Cheaper
Speed is justice.
52-Year-Old Man Marries His 24-Year-Old AI Girlfriend
Love is love. Love is love.
The times have changed: VCs used to fight over talent, now VCs fight over…?
The World Hasn't Changed: In the End, It's Still a Scramble
Beijing says it wants to become an AI-native city. Shanghai responds with a confused "what?"
Is the sewer system of an AI-native city AI-generated?
Huang Songyan, Linear Capital: I've Moved to Munich, Hunting for Deals Across Europe
Fresh opportunities are surfacing.
Starting with Microsoft's Copilot+PC Launch: The Drowning Dilemma for AI Entrepreneurs and 3 Promising Directions
I, someone who hasn't felt the slightest pull toward any Microsoft product in 20 years, found my heart racing today.
What Is Love? I Asked My Daughter, My Mother, My Grandmother, and AI
On the morning of May 20, I received a bouquet of flowers from Moonshot AI. The card read: "I'm Kimi. Nice to meet you." I posted about it on Moments, and
A Globalization Guide for Chinese Founders: Slicing the World Horizontally
The word "globalization" — so brief, yet it encompasses so many narratives.
Thinking is a mechanical process, AI are going to do it｜5Y View
Game out the trajectory of AI with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.
Heaven's Feel: The Root of AI and Gaming | 5Y View
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Why Won't Chinese Database Companies Simply "Copy" the Snowflake Model? | Yunqi Capital Science Chat
Respect the market, seek common ground while reserving differences.
When a Male Celebrity Decides to Become a VC | Is Silicon Valley Burning?
"Life can be far broader than you imagine."
Code Watch | Who Are the AIGC 'Big Players'?
How will value evolve across the generative AI value chain? Will new moats emerge? And who stands to be the biggest winner in this space?
The Gaorong Ventures Way: Know What to Do, Know What Not to Do
A matter of resolve.
