a16z raised $15 billion, saying they wanted America to win

Last Friday, a16z announced the completion of a $15 billion funding round.

Note that this is fundraising, not investment. LPs (Limited Partners) are entrusting them with money to invest in other companies.

How staggering is this figure?

In 2025, all VCs in the US raised a total of $66.1 billion, the lowest in eight years. a16z alone took nearly 20% of that.

The industry is going through a downturn, and they're stockpiling.

But why are LPs willing to entrust their money to them during this difficult period?

Perhaps because they have a track record of making money during downturns.

In 2009, they invested in Facebook, just after the financial crisis, and nobody dared to invest. In 2013, they invested in Coinbase, when most people thought Bitcoin was a geek toy. In May 2022, Bitcoin plummeted by 55%, Coinbase's stock price dropped by 80%, and a16z was still raising a $4.5 billion crypto fund.

At the time, the comments section was full of laughter at them for taking over.

Last year, The Information reported that the fund's returns had skyrocketed. The reason was simple: their investment in Solana had risen from $8 to $180.

"Be greedy when others are fearful" is often just motivational rhetoric.

But if you are greedy every time you are fearful, and you bet right every time, it becomes a kind of:credit record.

Returning to the topic of the $15 billion, how will a16z spend it?

Of that, $6.75 billion will be invested in growth-stage companies, providing additional funding to projects that have already proven successful and are poised for further expansion. $1.7 billion will be invested in application-level technologies, $1.7 billion in underlying technologies, and $700 million in biomedicine.

Another $1.176 billion will be invested in a theme called "American Dynamism."

Directly translated, it sounds like a slogan coined by a high-end think tank. Looking at what they've already invested in under this theme reveals its true meaning:

To enable America to manufacture things again.

To manufacture what? Weapons.

Companies in this portfolio, such as Anduril (autonomous weapon systems), Shield AI (military drones), Saronic (unmanned warships), and Castelion (hypersonic missiles), share a common thread: their largest customer is the Pentagon.

a16z itself stated that if a war were to break out with China in the Taiwan Strait, the US missile arsenal would be depleted in eight days, requiring three years to replenish.

In the eyes of the US, this isn't alarmist; it's a business opportunity.

The US military-industrial complex is aging; Lockheed Martin and similar companies are too slow and expensive. The Pentagon needs new suppliers. a16z is betting on this gap, using VC funding to incubate a group of "software-defined weapons" companies, which will then be sold to the Department of Defense once they mature.

$1.176 billion isn't a lot, but it represents a gamble on a prediction. The US is going to rebuild its manufacturing sector, starting with the military industry.

Betting on the defense industry requires more than just money; connections are essential.

a16z has no shortage of these.

In late 2024, Marc Andreessen claimed to be an "unpaid intern" at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), helping the department recruit and reportedly spending half his time at Mar-a-Lago advising Trump.

The DOGE was disbanded early last November, but a16z's network remained. Their first employee, Scott Kupor, is now the Director of the Office of Personnel Management in the United States.

Trump just announced this week that the defense budget will be increased to $1.5 trillion next year.

Many VCs invest in the defense industry, but very few can simultaneously invest in companies and influence policy.

This may be one of a16z's true moats—not just investing, but also participating in rule-making. They invest in missile companies while simultaneously helping the government decide who gets contracts.

It's a bit like being both referee and player.

You could call it a conflict of interest, or you could call it resource integration. LPs don't care; they only care about returns.

Many people know a16z because of Crypto.

In this $15 billion allocation, Crypto wasn't listed separately; it was crammed into the $3 billion "Others" category.

Has crypto been abandoned?

No. Ben Horowitz clearly wrote in his blog, "AI and Crypto are key architectures of the future."

For a16z, however, crypto no longer needs a separate fund.

In 2018, their first crypto fund was $350 million. By 2022, it had grown to $4.5 billion. Now? They invest directly from their main fund, placing it in the same pool as AI, military, and energy.

What does this signify?

It shows that, in their eyes, crypto has transformed from a "new track" into infrastructure.

Exchanges are infrastructure, public blockchains are infrastructure, and DeFi protocols are infrastructure. Like AWS, Nvidia, and missiles, they are all fundamental elements.

Previously, VCs invested in crypto; now they invest in infrastructure.

The landscape has broadened.

For the crypto industry, this is actually good news. Being categorized as "other" might seem like a downgrade, but it's more like graduation. It means this concept no longer needs separate explanation; LPs understand it, and Western regulators are beginning to accept it.

Of course, this also means that crypto projects will be competing with AI and military-related funds for the same funding pools.

The competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

Meanwhile, Ben wrote a statement on his blog that Sequoia Capital might not be too happy to hear:

"As leaders in US venture capital, we bear a part of the responsibility for the fate of new technologies."

Sequoia has been in the industry for 50 years, while a16z has only been for 16. Yet, both now manage around $90 billion in assets, tied for first place globally.

How?

The VC industry, in essence, sells two things: vision and resources.

Vision is hard to prove. You might say you have a good eye, but you'll have to wait ten years to see. Resources, however, are different; they can be accumulated.

What a16z has been doing all these years is building up its resources.

They have the strongest content team in the industry, with podcasts, blogs, and newsletters—the output rivals that of media companies. Even before securing funding, entrepreneurs are already being bombarded with a16z's worldview.

They have connections in Washington. It's not just about knowing a few politicians; it's about directly getting people into the government.

They also have the advantage of sheer scale. When managing $90 billion, you can write a $1 billion check to SpaceX—smaller funds simply can't do that.

It's not just about making accurate investments; it's about making yourself irreplaceable.

Entrepreneurs come to you not because you have a lot of money, but because you can help them secure government contracts. Limited partners (LPs) come to you not because of high returns, but because others don't have your policy influence.

This approach is difficult for other VCs to replicate.

Of course, there are risks involved.

a16z's current strategy is partly tied to the fate of the United States. If their judgments about AI winning, military industry booming, and American manufacturing reviving are wrong, a large portion of their $15 billion investment will be lost.

a16z is betting not just on the technological cycle, but on the political cycle. This cycle is arguably even more difficult to predict than the technological cycle.

However, the fact that LPs are willing to entrust them with 15 billion indicates that the market trusts this assessment.

Or, in other words, in an uncertain world, a16z offers a form of certainty:

We know how to turn money into influence, and then influence into returns. We invest when others are hesitant, we bet when others don't understand. Then we wait for the cycle to turn around and reap the rewards of that trust.

Therefore, you can understand this 15 billion as a vote of confidence from LPs in a16z.

Next, we'll see how a16z invests in the US.