Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is putting $35 million into a new Horowitz Andreessen Academy — an AI-native alternative to traditional college in San Francisco. The project is launched by Udemy co-founder Gagan Biyani. Details at WSJ
First cohort
The first cohort is just 50 people, starting fall 2027. Their first year will be free.
The academy wants to break pretty radically from the standard college model: no grades, no tests, no homework — short classes plus real projects with companies. Students in the first cohort are also promised more than $50,000 in compute credits and $5,000 for research and travel. Program details
Partners
Founding partners include ten companies:
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Google
- Meta
- Nvidia
- Palantir
- Replit
- Stripe
- Coinbase
- Anduril
The companies will give students access to their tools, compute, and offices, plus co-op programs — essentially internships inside the industry.
The manifesto
The academy has a great manifesto:
Education for an age of infinite doing.
The gist is roughly this: the internet made almost any knowledge accessible, and AI is now sharply cutting the cost of doing. One person can write a product, run research, make a film, or launch a company with resources that not long ago required years of preparation and a whole team. So the unit of measurement for education is changing too. Not knowledge, but doing (I'll underline this because I think it matters). At the exam, they won't ask *what do you know?* — they'll ask *what can you actually make?*
This still isn't a university in the traditional sense, and the program isn't accredited. In 2028 they want to launch a full two-year program — paid this time, and, if they get approval, with a diploma.
Why it matters
About time. It seems to me everyone's thinking right now about what to study, why, and how. Especially high schoolers, obviously, and their parents. But also plenty of tech people whose work keeps getting cheaper. Who needs four to five years to train as a manager? When AI is radically cutting the cost of doing whatever you want — writing software, running research, shooting a film, launching a company. Even the top university is finding it harder and harder to sell four years of prep for the moment you're finally allowed to start making things.
P.S. I still think you should study the fundamental things that won't go stale — physics, philosophy. Everything we've built, including AI, stands on them. Plus there's a ton of useful frameworks in there you can use in life.