Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, is launching a school for “unusually ambitious” high school graduates who are pursuing original research, building technologies and launching companies.
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy will start as a one-year, tuition-free program for 50 students who want to take a gap year before college or skip college altogether. Early applicants featured on the academy’s website have conducted biomedical research, taught an AI class at MIT and co-created a device that translates the facial muscle signals of ALS patients.
What Is The Horowitz Andreessen Academy?
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy is a tuition-free, yearlong program for high school graduates who want to start a company. Developed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, the school offers courses taught by tech industry leaders, a month abroad and hands-on experience with a major tech company.
The academy is built around four traits: AI-native building, high agency, ambition and interpersonal skills. The coursework — developed by several prominent tech leaders — has a wide variety of academic tracks, from AI products and AI research to aerospace, biotech and the mechanics of launching a startup.
Andreessen Horowitz has deep connections in Silicon Valley, and that’s evident in the academy’s roster of more than 250 instructors, guest speakers and mentors. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, World Labs CEO Fei-Fei Li, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Thinking Machines Lab CEO Mira Murati are just a few of the most recognizable names.
The inaugural yearlong program will start in September 2027 with eight months of classes at the San Francisco campus. In May 2028, students will receive $5,000 to travel abroad and pursue a month of independent research. From June through August 2028, they will work on real projects within a partner company. Students will also get more than $50,000 in computing credits and technology resources from academy partners.
The academy’s founding partners include Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit and Stripe. These companies helped Andreessen Horowitz create the curriculum, provide hardware and computing power and offer opportunities for hands-on learning. Most of those founding partners have joined Databricks, Notion and more than 60 other companies in signing up as hiring partners, meaning they will consider academy graduates for internships and full-time positions.
The unaccredited academy, which has raised $42 million in funding so far, plans to seek regulatory approval to offer a paid two-year program in 2028. The cost of the two-year program will be comparable to an elite private university, according to Andreessen Horowitz.
Real-World, Hands-On Experience
Dropping out of a prestigious school like Stanford or MIT to launch a startup has become a sort of badge of honor in Silicon Valley. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman all left college to start their own businesses. In that spirit, numerous tech companies have designed training and recruitment programs that value proficiency in real-world applications over theoretical concepts and academic credentials.
Prominent venture capitalist and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel runs a two-year fellowship program that gives young people $250,000 to skip or take a break from college to build their own startup. High school students aged 14 to 18 can also apply to LaunchX’s four-week entrepreneurship program, and graduating computer science students can apply to Neo Scholars’ year-long program, which offers mentorship, career connections and admission to its accelerator program.
Palantir takes more of an internship approach with its four-month Meritocracy Fellowship, which gives participants hands-on experience at the company and the chance to be considered for a full-time position after graduation. Co-founder and CEO Alex Karp — a Ph.D. himself — has been critical of the “indoctrination” on college campuses.
Other companies like Anduril have adopted skills-based hiring practices that prioritize practical technical skills over a college education. Anduril’s founder Palmer Luckey, who dropped out of college himself to start virtual reality startup Oculus VR, has said that he likes to hire young people who have the initiative to pursue passion projects and teach themselves through online sources. To that end, Anduril recently launched an autonomous drone-racing competition that promised a cash prize and a chance to interview directly with a hiring manager for a job at the company.
Learning at the Speed of AI
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy CEO, Udemy co-founder Gagan Biyani, said in a news release that college is still the right path for most students, but the most ambitious students need a program specially designed to keep pace with the evolution of artificial intelligence.
“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,” Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner at a16z, said in the news release. “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.”
These days, more than one-third of entry-level jobs require AI skills, forcing colleges to adapt their curricula. And dozens of universities have rushed to adopt AI bachelor’s degrees to stay relevant amid an 8.1 percent drop in software engineering enrollment in the 2025-2026 school year. Despite those efforts, more than 60 percent of college faculty think their schools’ 2025 graduates are not prepared to use AI at work.
In the meantime, tech companies have launched numerous programs with the goal of preparing young people for a workplace increasingly defined by agents and automation.
AI labs aim to lower the barriers for computer science graduates who want to transition to AI research, which typically requires a doctorate degree, internships and published research. Anthropic, for example, offers a paid, four-month research fellowship for aspiring AI researchers who want to work full-time toward producing an empirical research output, such as a research paper. Anthropic also plans to upskill workers while supporting nonprofit organizations through its yearlong Claude Corps fellowship, which will provide AI training to 1,000 early-career professionals assigned to more than 400 nonprofits.
There are also a wide variety of AI training and certification programs designed for those who want to learn AI skills without becoming AI researchers. Online learning companies Khan Academy, TED and ETS recently partnered to establish the Khan TED Institute, an unaccredited higher education program that focuses on practical AI skills, like creating AI applications and building AI agents.
Who Can Apply to The Horowitz Andreessen Academy?
Applicants to The Horowitz Andreessen Academy must have finished high school by August 2027, but cannot have more than two years of full-time college after high school. College students are welcome to apply, but priority goes to graduating high school seniors. There’s no age limit, and international applicants are welcome.
How to Apply to The Horowitz Andreessen Academy
Those interested should apply online at www.theacademysf.com by the early application deadline on November 5, 2026. Applicants should provide their high school transcripts, test scores, a portfolio site and a short video explaining what they’ve built and why it matters.
Early admissions decisions will be made in January 2027. If there are still spots available, the academy will open up a regular round of admissions in early 2027. The first fellowship class runs from September 2027 to August 2028.
Who is eligible to apply to The Horowitz Andreessen Academy?
Applicants must finish high school by August 2027 and have no more than two years of full-time college experience after high school. While priority goes to graduating high school seniors, college students may also apply. There is no age limit, and international applicants are eligible.
How much does The Horowitz Andreessen Academy cost, and what resources are provided?
The initial one-year program is tuition-free. Accepted students receive over $50,000 in computing credits and technology resources, as well as a $5,000 stipend to conduct independent research abroad. Students are responsible for choosing and arranging their own housing, but the academy will try to coordinate housing for students who would like to live with their peers.
What subjects are covered at The Horowitz Andreessen Academy, and who teaches them?
The curriculum features more than a dozen academic tracks in AI products, AI research, aerospace, biotech and other subjects. The program features more than 250 instructors, mentors and guest speakers from Andreessen Horowitz, partnering companies and other top tech leaders.
