On September 22, 2026, a16z announced the launch of The Horowitz Andreessen Academy (The Academy), a highly selective school in San Francisco for the most ambitious young builders after high school—giving them the skills, network, and real-world experiences to excel in a world being fundamentally reshaped by AI. The Academy raised $42 million in funding led by a16z, along with a group of angel investors including Adam D'Angelo (co-founder, Quora), Tobi Lütke (CEO, Shopify), Tony Xu (CEO, DoorDash), Fidji Simo (recently CEO of Applications, OpenAI), Garry Tan (CEO, Y Combinator), Joe Liemandt (Principal, Alpha School), and Shyam Sankar (CTO, Palantir). Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised The Academy on its financing round.

The Academy is centered on building, which a16z describes as the most valuable skill for becoming a productive, curious, and happy adult. Its goal is to help high school graduates thrive by cultivating that instinct. The founding partners of The Academy include 10 of the world's most innovative companies: Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe.

The Wilson Sonsini team that advised The Academy on the transaction includes Yokum Taku, Avi Emanuel, Anna An, Andrii Onysko, and Lydia Vergara.

For more information, see a16z's blog post. Additional coverage can be found in The Wall Street Journal.