Tech elites launch college alternative to nurture next generation of AI geniuses, raises $42M
The tech elite of Silicon Valley are spending millions on a new college alternative that they hope will be an incubator for top talent, encouraging students to build AI models instead of taking science classes or doing homework.Venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is spending $35 million on an unaccredited two-year alternative to traditional college based in San Francisco.It’s aimed at students ages 16 to 22 with the goal of cultivating the “world’s most ambitious young builders.”The undertaking has raised another $7 million from founding partners including Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit and Stripe, according to Andreessen Horowitz, which is also known as a16z.The Horowitz Andreessen Academy will technically operate as an independent business, not a school, run by Gagan Biyani – the co-founder of online-learning platform Udemy – while a16z partners Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg will join him on the board.Investors are hoping young eggheads will enroll in the academy instead of dropping out of college to launch their own start-ups, so they can get first dibs on the next generation of AI talent.
Some of the most valuable AI start-ups are run by teens and 20-somethings who have raised millions of dollars.Each student will have access to more than $50,000 worth of access to coveted AI computing power from the founding partner companies, which will open their networks to enrollees and advise on the school’s curriculum. Students will also receive a $5,000 travel and exploration budget, access to a16z’s investors and instruction from guest lecturers including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Steven Sinofsky, the former head of Windows, according to a press release.More than 40 additional companies including Applied Intuition, Databricks and Shopify have signed on as hiring partners, so they’ll be scouting students for internships and full-time positions.This week, the academy started accepting applications...