Horowitz Andreessen Academy Launches in San Francisco for the World’s Most Ambitious Young Builders

a16z-incubated school opens applications for its Founding Class Fellowship, backed by $42 million and Founding Partners including Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, the Horowitz Andreessen Academy (The Academy), an in-person program for the world’s most ambitious young builders, launches in San Francisco. Incubated by a16z, The Academy pairs operator-led instruction with real-world building, giving students the resources, mentorship, and community to turn their ideas into companies or careers.

It offers a new type of education for the next generation of tech leaders coming out of high school. These are young people who are already building the future of technology, starting companies from their bedrooms, and teaching themselves faster than any curriculum can keep pace. The Academy invites them to come to San Francisco to learn at the speed of Silicon Valley by immersing themselves in building, doing, and learning, in a program built from the ground-up for the AI era.

The Academy is now accepting applications for its Founding Class Fellowship, which begins in San Francisco in Fall 2027. Admission is heavily weighted on proof of work: what applicants have built, shipped, or earned, and not entirely on grades, essays and test scores. The Founding Class Fellowship will be approximately 50 students, will run for one year, and will be tuition-free. The Academy intends to seek regulatory approvals for a two-year program, targeting Fall 2028. Most students will attend the Founding Class Fellowship either directly as high school graduates or after 1-2 years at an elite university.

Founder and CEO Gagan Biyani leads the Academy, building on nearly 20 years experience building products that transform how people learn. He previously co-founded Udemy, which grew into a multibillion-dollar public company, and Maven, which raised $25 million led by a16z. a16z incubated the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, and Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg will join Gagan Biyani on its board. The Academy has raised $42 million from a16z and a group of individual 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 (Y Combinator), Joe Liemandt (Alpha School), Shyam Sankar (CTO, Palantir), and others.

“The most ambitious young people today are building companies from their parents’ living rooms, launching websites that reach millions of people, and building robotic arms before they turn 18,” said Biyani. “College is still the right path for most students, but when the most elite and ambitious builders graduate high school, they need a program designed specifically for them. There’s no better moment than now, with AI moving this fast, to launch the Academy. When I co-founded Udemy and Maven, I imagined a future where education is purposefully designed for the modern era. The Horowitz Andreessen Academy is the next evolution of that vision, and leverages a16z’s vast network and financial resources so we can build a program that the most talented students deserve.”

“In our estimation, the AI revolution is going to be as transformational to jobs as the Industrial Revolution was to the agricultural society that came before it,” said Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at a16z. “The training that worked for the Industrial Revolution isn’t going to map perfectly onto the AI revolution, so somebody has to pioneer how you train a person for this new world. That’s what we built the Academy to do. This isn’t just an investment idea for us. It’s an investment in the future of the country.”

“Ambitious young people aren’t waiting for permission to work on today’s most pressing problems. The Horowitz Andreessen Academy is a bet that the builders who will define the next generation of American technology should move to San Francisco and learn how to succeed directly from the best in Silicon Valley,” said Erik Torenberg, GP at a16z and HA Academy board member.

Supported by Silicon Valley’s Greatest Companies

The Academy is launching with a legendary group of Founding Partner companies, including Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe. Each company is offering unique value, including advice on building an AI-native, modern curriculum, providing students access to their software, hardware and compute, and opening their network and knowledge to Academy students for hands-on learning. More than 40 additional companies, including Applied Intuition, Base Power Company, Cognition, Databricks, Notion, and Shopify have signed on as hiring partners, and are excited to meet Academy students and alumni for internships and full-time opportunities.

Learn from Silicon Valley Legends, and by Doing

The Academy students will spend their time building real projects instead of doing problem sets, tests, and homework. Instruction comes from legendary operator-teachers who have built and run companies. Instructors and guest lecturers include Dylan Field (CEO, Figma), Fei-Fei Li (Co-Founder/CEO, World Labs), Michael Ovitz (Co-Founder, CAA), Naval Ravikant (Co-founder, AngelList), Nikesh Arora (CEO, Palo Alto Networks), Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI), Shreyas Doshi (PM Leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google), Steven Sinofsky (Former head of Windows), and many more.

Every student gets $50,000+ in compute credits and technology resources from Academy partners, a $5,000 travel and exploration budget, access to the a16z network and its investors, and time inside some of the country’s fastest-growing startups and most established tech companies.

The program is built around four traits: AI-Native Building, High Agency, Ambition, and Interpersonal Skills. Coursework will be expansive and span practical subjects like Designing AI Systems, Founder-Led Sales, Go-to-Market for B2B, Storytelling and New Media, Leading High Ownership Cultures, and Startup Mechanics: Formation, Cap Tables, Finance, and Fundraising, taught by practitioners rather than academics.

San Francisco is the Campus

The Academy is based in San Francisco because that is where the density of builders is highest anywhere on earth. It’s San Francisco or nowhere. The Academy is an in-person program. We plan to suggest housing providers where students can live near or with other Academy students to build a network of peers to learn, grow and play with.

The Academy will primarily serve high school graduates who would otherwise go to a four-year university, including transfer students and international applicants, with priority going to graduating high school seniors. Applications are now open for a tuition-free Founding Class Fellowship starting in September 2027. This Fellowship can serve as a gap year or a deferral from a traditional college. Separately, The Academy intends to seek regulatory approvals for a two-year program, targeting Fall 2028. The tuition for the two-year program is expected to be similar to that of elite private universities.

The Academy is a for-profit company, separate from Andreessen Horowitz but closely tied to the firm, with the goal to build a strong, enduring education company for technology founders and operators.

About The Horowitz Andreessen Academy

The Horowitz Andreessen Academy (The Academy) is a residential program in San Francisco, offering a different path for the next generation of tech leaders coming out of high school. Incubated by a16z, the Academy pairs operator-led instruction with real-world building, giving students the resources, mentorship, and community to turn their ideas into companies or careers. The Academy is co-created with founding partner companies including Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe. Applications for the Founding Class Fellowship, which begins Fall 2027, are open now. Learn more at theacademysf.com