The Frontier Ideas a16z Wants to Fund Now | Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz & Chris Dixon

在这期于2026年10月23日发布的播客节目中，主持人们宣布将ACC加密基金扩展为**A16Z前沿基金**（A16Z Frontier），由克里斯（Chris）领导。此次投资授权的扩大主要受两个因素驱动：首先，像稳定币这样的加密技术已经融入了主流技术领域，与金融科技和华尔街的界限变得模糊；其次，公司希望确保为核心垂直领域之外的“外星”机会提供专门的覆盖。克里斯回顾了他2013年加入公司的背景，以及智能手机的二级效应如何引领了对无人机、VR（Oculus）和加密货币的投资。本（Ben）和马克（Mark）讨论了公司的历史文化，从摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）“以一流的方式做一流的业务”的理念中汲取灵感，并赞扬了克里斯发现“看起来像坏主意的好主意”的能力。他们还强调了在加密货币发展历程中建立的政策和监管部门的重要性，这将使其他尖端技术受益。 对话转向了未来、技术风险，以及早期采用者和普通人对当今可能实现的事情的认知之间巨大的差距。在人工智能快速发展的推动下，前沿创业者正在建立具有前所未有深度、技术复杂性和雄心的公司。马克指出，人工智能原生早期初创公司对自身能力的看法与传统公司截然不同，传统公司的时间不多了。虽然许多机构采用人工智能的速度很慢，但个人员工却在大力使用它，这将导致初创公司的成立数量激增。克里斯提到，技术现代化公司与经济其他部分之间的差距正在扩大，这已经不仅仅局限于科技公司之间的互相竞争。 专家组讨论了开源人工智能，指出其在美国和中国都呈蓬勃发展之势。他们强调，开源对于防止中央政府或垄断控制的未来至关重要，它赋予了孩子们和研究人员学习、构建和保护自己的能力。克里斯强调了“互联网契约”——分发平台与内容网站之间传统的流量共享协议——随着人工智能直接回答查询，这一契约正在瓦在解，这促成了未来十年互联网及其底层经济的重大重组。 在谈到硬件时，克里斯和马克指出，最近的人工智能突破（例如能够对任何硬件进行逆向工程并编写新代码的工具）如何使小团队能够完成曾经需要数千人的工作。在媒体和娱乐领域，人工智能正在推动一场创意复兴，降低制作预算，并催生出互动媒体、电子游戏和娱乐的新型人工智能原生形式。 在讨论年轻人今天应该学习什么时，马克的观点是研究现代智能——通过数学、计算机科学和经济学将沙子变成智能。归根结底，主持人们重申，尽管有所有这些趋势和理论，该公司的核心哲学保持不变：他们投资于对未来抱有明确乐观态度的杰出创业者。

In this podcast episode, published on October 23, 2026, the hosts announce the expansion of the ACC Crypto Fund into **A16Z Frontier**, led by Chris. The mandate expansion is motivated by two main factors: first, crypto technologies like stablecoins have become integrated into the mainstream tech landscape, blurring lines with fintech and Wall Street; second, the firm wants to ensure dedicated coverage for "outer planet" opportunities that fall outside core verticals. Chris reflects on his background starting at the firm in 2013 and how second-order smartphone effects led to investments in drones, VR (Oculus), and crypto. Ben and Mark discuss the firm's historical culture, drawing inspiration from J.P. Morgan's ethos of doing "first-class business in a first-class way," and praise Chris's ability to spot "good ideas that look like bad ideas." They also emphasize the importance of their policy and regulatory arms built during the crypto journey, which will benefit other cutting-edge technologies. The conversation shifts to the future, technical risk, and the massive delta between what early adopters and normal people understand is possible today. Powered by rapid advancements in AI, the leading-edge entrepreneurs are building companies with an unprecedented level of depth, technical complexity, and ambition. Mark notes that AI-native early-stage startups view what they can do very differently from incumbents, and the clock is ticking for traditional companies. While many institutions are slow to adopt AI, individual employees are using it heavily, which will cause startup formation to skyrocket. Chris mentions that the gap between tech-modern companies and the rest of the economy is widening, moving beyond just tech companies fighting each other. The panel discusses open-source AI, noting its booming growth across both the US and China. They emphasize that open source is crucial to preventing a centralized government or monopoly-controlled future, giving kids and researchers the ability to learn, build, and defend themselves. Chris highlights the "internet's covenant"—the traditional traffic-sharing deal between distribution platforms and content sites—which is breaking down as AI answers queries directly, prompting a great reconfiguration of the internet and its underlying economics over the coming decade. Addressing hardware, Chris and Mark point out how recent AI breakthroughs, such as tools that can reverse-engineer any hardware and write new code, allow small teams to accomplish what once required thousands of people. In media and entertainment, AI is enabling a creative renaissance, lowering production budgets and allowing for new AI-native forms of interactive media, video games, and entertainment. Discussing what young people should study today, Mark’s framing is to study modern intelligence—turning sand into intelligence through math, computer science, and economics. Ultimately, the hosts reiterate that despite all these trends and theories, the firm's core philosophy remains unchanged: they invest in exceptional entrepreneurs who hold definite optimistic views of the future.