What Could a16z Invest in With $15 Billion in 2026?

KEYTAKEAWAYS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• KEY TAKEAWAYS
• 6 KEY INVESTMENT DIRECTIONS
• A16Z’S 2026 OUTLOOK
• DISCLAIMER
• WRITER’S INTRO

CONTENT

Andreessen Horowitz raised a record $15B, outlining six investment directions and a 2026 crypto outlook focused on apps, infrastructure, growth-stage winners, and emerging themes like privacy and stablecoins.

On January 9, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of the most active venture capital giants in the crypto market, announced the completion of a new $15 billion fundraising round—the largest in the firm’s history. The amount raised accounts for more than 18% of total U.S. venture capital funding in 2025.

In its relatively brief announcement, a16z mentioned cryptocurrencies twice. Most notably, the statement that “our mission is to ensure America wins the next 100 years of technological competition, and that starts with winning the key infrastructure of the future—artificial intelligence and crypto technologies” signals that, now armed with substantial capital, a16z is set to continue deepening its presence in the crypto market.

6 KEY INVESTMENT DIRECTIONS

According to a16z’s plans, this new pool of capital will be allocated across six major verticals. The American Dynamism fund will receive $1.176 billion, the Apps fund $1.7 billion, the Bio + Health fund $700 million, the Infrastructure fund $1.7 billion, the Growth fund $6.75 billion, and Other Venture Strategies $3 billion.

While a16z did not explicitly designate a standalone crypto-focused fund in this round, all six directions intersect with the crypto space to varying degrees.

First is the American Dynamism fund, a direction a16z has strongly promoted in recent years with a clear “politicized” undertone. Its core mission is to rebuild U.S. “hard power” and national competitiveness through venture capital. The fund mainly invests in aerospace, defense, public safety, education, housing, supply chains, industrials, and manufacturing. Objectively speaking, its overlap with crypto is relatively limited.

Next is the Apps fund, one of a16z’s most traditional and most “VC-like” funds. Its core focus is on application-layer products that are directly used by end users. Key investment areas include consumer internet products, AI applications, creator tools, social platforms, content services, gaming, fintech, and Web3 applications. This is also where a16z’s crypto narrative is most likely to translate into concrete investments.

Then there is the Bio + Health fund, a long-term bet beyond “pure tech.” Its goal is to reshape life sciences and healthcare through software, data, and engineering-driven approaches. The fund targets biotechnology, drug discovery platforms, gene editing, synthetic biology, medical data and AI diagnostics, and healthcare infrastructure software. While direct overlap with crypto is limited, DeSci could emerge as a potential point of convergence.

The Infrastructure fund focuses on foundational technologies, aiming to provide irreplaceable building blocks for the next generation of applications and platforms. Its investment scope includes cloud computing and distributed systems, AI infrastructure, data platforms, developer tools, network protocols, and blockchain base-layer protocols (L1s, L2s, and related tooling). Alongside the Apps fund, this represents another core battleground for a16z in crypto.

The Growth fund targets Series C and later-stage companies, including pre-IPO opportunities. Its objective is not to discover new ideas, but to amplify returns by backing proven winners. Investments typically include mature tech companies, AI platforms, fintech unicorns, and established Web3 infrastructure or applications. According to a16z’s website, companies such as Coinbase and Kalshi fall into this category.

Lastly, Other Venture Strategies are more unique. Rather than following a single theme, it functions as a flexible “tactical capital pool,” often used for special-structure deals, cross-fund co-investments, early experiments in emerging areas, secondary market opportunities, or region- and theme-specific pilot funds. Its direct overlap with crypto is limited, though temporary intersections may occur at specific moments—such as opportunistic moves during regulatory or policy windows.

Overall, among the six directions planned for this $15 billion deployment, the Apps, Infrastructure, and Growth funds are likely to serve as the primary capital channels into the crypto primary market. The Apps and Infrastructure funds will focus more on native crypto application-layer and protocol-layer projects, respectively, while the Growth fund will concentrate on platform-type services such as exchanges and prediction markets, with a preference for category leaders that have already established a clear competitive position.

A16Z’S 2026 OUTLOOK

On New Year’s Day 2026, Andreessen Horowitz Crypto published a New Year outlook article. In it, the firm highlighted 17 developments it was excited about for 2026—signals that may also reveal where it intends to focus its future market positioning.

🔍 These 17 potential developments include:

• Privacy becoming the most important moat in crypto

• Prediction markets growing larger, broader, and more intelligent

• Rethinking real-world asset tokenization and stablecoins in a more “crypto-native” way

• Trading as a transit point in crypto businesses, not the end destination

• A shift from “Know Your Customer” (KYC) to “Know Your Agent”

• Better and smarter on- and off-ramps for stablecoins

• Stablecoins driving an upgrade cycle for bank ledgers and unlocking new payment scenarios

• The future of instant messaging being not only quantum-resistant but also decentralized

• A transition from “code is law” to “standards are law”

• Crypto technologies providing new foundational primitives that extend beyond blockchains themselves

• AI now being capable of carrying out substantive research tasks

• “Invisible taxes” within the open internet

• The rise of staked media

• “Secrets-as-a-Service”

• Wealth management for everyone

• The internet becoming a bank

• The full potential of blockchains being unlocked once legal frameworks finally align with technical architectures

Among these 17 developments, several clearly point to concrete business models—many of which align with areas where a16z has already made focused bets, such as privacy, prediction markets, stablecoins, and AI. In some cases, a16z even outlined optimization paths for these models, such as the need for more intelligent stablecoin on- and off-ramp solutions.

At the same time, other developments are more aspirational visions of the future—for example, the idea that the internet will ultimately become a bank. How exactly these visions will materialize remains unanswered, even by a16z itself. That challenge is left to entrepreneurs capable of delivering innovative solutions—and they are precisely the targets a16z hopes to find with its $15 billion war chest.

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