Andreessen Horowitz backs new San Francisco academy for ambitious young builders

Andreessen Horowitz has incubated a new educational venture, the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a San Francisco-based program aimed at young people who want to build companies and careers in technology after high school. The academy is positioned as an alternative to a traditional college path for students who want structured instruction, mentorship and access to Silicon Valley networks.

The academy says its founding class fellowship is tuition-free and will begin in September 2027. It is designed primarily for high school graduates, including transfer and international applicants, and it will also accept some students in their first or second years of college. The program is intended to serve students who are eager to work on startups, AI tools and other projects while living in San Francisco.

The announcement reflects a broader debate over how higher education should adapt to artificial intelligence and changes in the labor market. Supporters of the academy argue that students need a more hands-on environment tailored to the pace of modern technology, while traditional universities continue to offer a wider academic model. The new school is also being launched with backing from some of the biggest names in tech.

A network built around Silicon Valley

According to the academy, the first wave of founding partner companies includes Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit and Stripe. The school says those partners will help shape the curriculum, provide access to compute and hardware, and create opportunities for hands-on learning and co-op experiences. More than 40 additional companies are listed as hiring partners.

Gagan Biyani, who previously co-founded Udemy and Maven, is leading the academy. In the announcement, he said the school is intended for unusually ambitious young builders and that the model is meant to match the speed of the AI era. Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg are joining the academy’s board, and the venture has raised a total of $42 million, led by a16z, to support the launch.

The academy says students will not be assigned traditional grades, tests or homework. Instead, the program will center on short classes taught by founders and operators, followed by time for building, internships and exploration. The curriculum is expected to include topics such as AI systems, founder-led sales, go-to-market strategy, storytelling, startup formation, finance and fundraising.

A separate two-year program is also being planned, though the academy says it is not yet approved or enrolling students. If regulators sign off, the school expects that program to begin in fall 2028 and charge tuition similar to that of an elite private university. For now, the founding fellowship remains the academy’s first official offering as it seeks to establish itself in San Francisco.