SAN FRANCISCO, September 23, 2026: Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is making a major bet on education, incubating a new San Francisco institution designed to prepare young people for careers and entrepreneurship in an economy increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy (HAA) will operate as a private, full-time, in-person school for young builders coming out of high school. It is a separate, for-profit education company from a16z, although the venture firm incubated the project and is investing $35 million to launch it. Altogether, the academy says it has raised $42 million.
The academy is led by founder and CEO Gagan Biyani, who previously co-founded online learning platform Udemy. Marc Andreessen and a16z partner Erik Torenberg are joining its board.
First Class Will Be Small — and Tuition-Free
The academy is initially opening applications for its Founding Class Fellowship, expected to comprise roughly 50 students.
The one-year program is scheduled to begin in fall 2027 and will charge no tuition. Students will, however, need to live in San Francisco and arrange their own housing.
Eligibility is aimed primarily at students graduating from high school who might otherwise enter a four-year university. Applicants must have a high-school diploma or equivalent by August 2027 and generally cannot have completed more than one year of full-time college enrollment after high school by that point.
International students are permitted to apply, although the academy says it cannot guarantee visa eligibility or approval.
Early applications are due November 5, 2026, with Stage 2 invitations being issued on a rolling basis and decisions expected by late January 2027.
An Education Model Built Around ‘Proof of Work’
One of the academy's biggest departures from conventional higher education is how it intends to evaluate students.
Rather than putting traditional academic performance at the center of the program, the academy says admission will primarily focus on “proof of work” — what applicants have already built, shipped or accomplished.
Applicants will be expected to provide a portfolio website showing their work, a short video, test scores and high-school transcripts. The initial application does not require recommendation letters or essays.
The learning model itself follows the same philosophy.
Students are not expected to have conventional grades, tests or homework. Instead, the academy says they will attend short classes and devote much of their time to building projects, working at companies and exploring potential ventures.
Biyani told Forbes that 75% to 80% of students' time is expected to be spent working on projects or developing their ideas.
AI Is Central, but the Curriculum Goes Beyond AI
Calling HAA simply an “AI school” understates its intended scope.
The academy describes itself as preparing students for a world being fundamentally reshaped by AI, but its curriculum is expected to span technology, entrepreneurship, communication and leadership.
Planned subjects include frontier systems, AI inference engineering, modern software development, the craft of selling and the history and development of digital computing from 1940 to 2025.
CBS News reports that instruction will also cover areas such as designing AI systems, startup fundraising, business sales and storytelling.
The objective is therefore not simply to teach students how to use AI tools. The broader model is designed around learning how to build products, create companies and work inside rapidly growing technology businesses.
OpenAI, Nvidia, Google and Meta Among 10 Founding Partners
The academy's connection to Silicon Valley is one of its most distinctive features.
Its 10 founding partners are Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit and Stripe.
Depending on the company, partners are expected to contribute access to computing resources and hardware, help develop curriculum, or provide hands-on learning and co-op opportunities.
The academy says more than 40 additional companies have signed on as hiring partners.
Students in the founding cohort are also expected to receive more than $50,000 in computing credits as well as a $5,000 travel and research budget.
That industry access could become a major point of differentiation from a conventional university program because students would be learning alongside companies currently developing and commercializing AI technologies.
Silicon Valley Leaders Expected to Participate
The academy is assembling a network of technology executives, founders and specialists to participate as instructors, speakers or mentors.
The announced network includes figures such as Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Satya Nadella, Travis Kalanick, Mira Murati, Ali Ghodsi and Patrick Collison.
Their exact involvement may differ by individual, so their inclusion should not be interpreted to mean that each will teach a conventional semester-long course.
Instead, HAA says students will learn from founders and operators through shorter, intensive classes while spending the majority of their time on practical work.
Why Andreessen Horowitz Thinks Education Needs to Change
The project reflects a broader argument within parts of Silicon Valley that AI is changing the skills young people need to enter technology businesses.
Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz framed the academy as an attempt to rethink education for a new technological era.
“The training that worked for the Industrial Revolution isn't going to map perfectly onto the AI revolution.”
Horowitz said somebody therefore needs to pioneer new ways of preparing people for that environment.
Biyani has similarly argued that portfolios and demonstrated experience could become increasingly important in technology employment.
“In the AI era, it’s more important to come out with a portfolio of projects that you worked on and work experience than it is to have a diploma or certificate.”
That represents the academy leadership's view of how hiring is changing rather than an established conclusion that traditional degrees are no longer valuable across the wider labor market.
HAA Will Not Initially Award a College Degree
There is an important distinction for prospective students: the academy is not currently an accredited college and does not award a college degree.
That means its value proposition depends heavily on practical experience, portfolios, industry relationships and employment or entrepreneurial opportunities rather than a conventional academic credential.
The initial 2027 fellowship is essentially a test of that approach.
HAA intends to seek the necessary regulatory approvals for a more extensive two-year program beginning in fall 2028.
Future Two-Year Program Could Carry Elite-University-Level Tuition
While the first cohort will attend tuition-free, the longer-term model will be substantially different.
If regulatory approval is obtained, the academy plans to launch its full two-year offering in 2028. Biyani has said tuition could be equal to or higher than that charged by elite private universities.
That creates an interesting contrast at the center of the project.
HAA is challenging elements of the traditional university model — degrees, lectures, grades and conventional coursework — without necessarily positioning itself as a low-cost alternative once the pilot stage ends.
Instead, its proposition appears to be that intensive industry exposure, project-based learning and access to Silicon Valley's technology ecosystem can justify an elite-institution price.
Whether students and families agree with that proposition will become clearer after the founding cohort and regulatory process.
Part of a Wider Shift Toward Alternatives to College
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy is not Silicon Valley's first attempt to create a different pathway into technology.
The Thiel Fellowship, launched by Peter Thiel, famously encourages selected young people to pursue entrepreneurial projects outside traditional university education. Palantir has also developed a Meritocracy Fellowship that emphasizes demonstrated ability and real-world execution.
What makes HAA different is its attempt to turn that philosophy into a more structured, full-time educational institution supported by a broad network of major AI and technology companies.
The project also comes as AI raises difficult questions for universities themselves: what students should learn when software can increasingly generate code, conduct research, analyze information and assist with creative work.
HAA's answer is to shift the emphasis from demonstrating what students know toward demonstrating what they can build and do.
Whether that model can become a genuine alternative to an elite four-year university remains unproven. The first meaningful test begins when roughly 50 students arrive in San Francisco in fall 2027.
