Andreessen Horowitz said it has launched a $1.1 billion Machine Age Fund focused on hardware and computing infrastructure for the AI era, alongside additional fundraising that expanded its fifth growth fund to $8.5 billion.

The firm said the Machine Age Fund will target core computing infrastructure, including semiconductors, memory, networking, and storage. It also plans to invest in hardware and systems such as data centers, robotics, and home AI devices.

Andreessen Horowitz framed the new vehicle around rising demand for computing infrastructure as AI use cases broaden. The firm said the fund formalizes hardware as a key investment area and is intended to expand support for companies building AI infrastructure.

At the same time, the firm said it raised additional capital for its fifth growth fund, bringing that fund’s total size to $8.5 billion. According to the announcement, the growth strategy targets companies that have already reached the growth stage of technology development, and Andreessen Horowitz said it has backed more than 100 growth-stage companies over the past seven years.

The firm also said it is strengthening support for portfolio companies expanding internationally. It cited the opening of an office in Seoul and the appointment of a head of go-to-market strategy for the Asia-Pacific region as part of that effort.

Why It Matters

The announcement adds to evidence that AI investing is moving deeper into the physical layer of the stack, not just software models and applications. That matters because semiconductors, networking, storage, and data-center capacity are becoming strategic bottlenecks as AI deployment expands.

For crypto markets, the relevance is indirect but notable. Large pools of capital aimed at compute, hardware, and infrastructure can shape investor attention across adjacent themes, especially where AI and crypto overlap in distributed computing, machine-driven applications, and capital-intensive network infrastructure.