Why Top Founders Are Racing Into AI Infrastructure

Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado, Raghu Raghuram, and Erik Torenberg discuss the launch of a16z's new Machine Age Fund and the infrastructure buildout behind AI, from chips, memory, and networking to power, cooling, and data centers. Why a dedicated fund now? The group argues that the bottleneck in AI is increasingly shifting from the models themselves to everything beneath them. Hyperscaler CapEx is surging, critical components are booked years in advance, and each new generation of reasoning and agents requires dramatically more compute. They unpack why this cycle looks different from previous infrastructure booms and how AI is turning problems once constrained by engineering into problems that can increasingly be attacked with capital and compute. They also explore where the next generation of infrastructure companies could emerge, why founders are returning to hard technical problems across hardware and systems, and what it will take to rebuild the computing stack for the Machine Age. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - Introducing the Machine Age Fund 02:00 - Why Founder Interest in Hardware Just 4x'd 04:00 - How Do We Know Demand Isn't a Hype Cycle? 07:00 - Sold Out to 2028: The Unprecedented Supply Crunch 10:00 - What's Actually Bottlenecked Right Now 14:00 - Tokens, Scaling & Why There's No Natural Regulator 19:00 - Agents as a New Kind of Employee: The GrokBot Moment 25:00 - What "AI-Designed" Infrastructure Actually Looks Like 28:00 - Rack Power, Liquid Cooling & the Data Center Redesign 34:00 - 44 Gigawatts by 2028: Why Building Faster Is So Hard 38:00 - Why "Machine Age" Is the Right Name 40:00 - Won't Incumbents Like Nvidia Take Everything? 48:00 - The Founder Profile: Why Hardware Needs Experience Resources: Read more about the Machine Age Fund : https://www.a16z.news/p/the-machine-age-fund Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Follow Raghu Raghuram on X: https://x.com/RaghuRaghuram Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

Ben HorowitzguestRaghu RaghuramguestErik Torenberghost

Aug 28, 202653mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: August 28, 2026
Duration: 53m
Channel: a16z
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado, Raghu Raghuram, and Erik Torenberg discuss the launch of a16z's new Machine Age Fund and the infrastructure buildout behind AI, from chips, memory, and networking to power, cooling, and data centers. Why a dedicated fund now? The group argues that the bottleneck in AI is increasingly shifting from the models themselves to everything beneath them. Hyperscaler CapEx is surging, critical components are booked years in advance, and each new generation of reasoning and agents requires dramatically more compute. They unpack why this cycle looks different from previous infrastructure booms and how AI is turning problems once constrained by engineering into problems that can increasingly be attacked with capital and compute. They also explore where the next generation of infrastructure companies could emerge, why founders are returning to hard technical problems across hardware and systems, and what it will take to rebuild the computing stack for the Machine Age. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - Introducing the Machine Age Fund 02:00 - Why Founder Interest in Hardware Just 4x'd 04:00 - How Do We Know Demand Isn't a Hype Cycle? 07:00 - Sold Out to 2028: The Unprecedented Supply Crunch 10:00 - What's Actually Bottlenecked Right Now 14:00 - Tokens, Scaling & Why There's No Natural Regulator 19:00 - Agents as a New Kind of Employee: The GrokBot Moment 25:00 - What "AI-Designed" Infrastructure Actually Looks Like 28:00 - Rack Power, Liquid Cooling & the Data Center Redesign 34:00 - 44 Gigawatts by 2028: Why Building Faster Is So Hard 38:00 - Why "Machine Age" Is the Right Name 40:00 - Won't Incumbents Like Nvidia Take Everything? 48:00 - The Founder Profile: Why Hardware Needs Experience Resources: Read more about the Machine Age Fund : https://www.a16z.news/p/the-machine-age-fund Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Follow Raghu Raghuram on X: https://x.com/RaghuRaghuram Follow Martin Casado on X: https://x.com/martin_casado Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

SPEAKERS

Ben Horowitz
guest
Cofounder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Raghu Raghuram
guest
Enterprise infrastructure executive and former CEO of VMware.
Erik Torenberg
host
Podcast host and venture investor at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of a16z, featuring Ben Horowitz and Raghu Raghuram, Why Top Founders Are Racing Into AI Infrastructure explores aI’s explosive demand is forcing a full-stack infrastructure rebuild a16z announces the “Machine Age Fund,” premised on the view that AI is the biggest technology shift since electricity and requires an entirely new infrastructure stack.

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