Andreessen Horowitz AI academy challenges traditional college path
Horowitz Andreessen Academy CEO Gagan Biyani explains why the AI-focused program is betting on builders over traditional academic credentials.
An artificial intelligence-focused academy backed by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz is betting that a new generation of tech workers may be better served building products and companies than following a traditional four-year college path.
The Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a private, in-person program in San Francisco, is recruiting roughly 50 students for a tuition-free founding class fellowship beginning in fall 2027. The academy was incubated by Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, which is investing $35 million to launch it, according to the school.
In 2028, pending regulatory approval, it will offer a two-year program and expects to charge a tuition similar to an “elite private university.”
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Gagan Biyani, founder and CEO of the Horowitz Andreessen Academy and co-founder of online learning platform Udemy, told FOX Business the program reflects “a massive shift” in what modern companies need and what is possible in education.
The academy arrives as recent college graduates face a difficult labor market.
Ben Horowitz, left; Gagan Biyani, center; and Erik Torenberg, right, at the Horowitz Andreessen Academy in San Francisco. (Courtesy Horowitz Andreessen Academy)
The unemployment rate among recent college graduates, ages 22 to 27, was about 5.6% in the second quarter of 2026, while roughly 42% were underemployed, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The bank considers a college graduate underemployed when working in a job that typically does not require a bachelor’s degree.
Still, broader federal data show a college education continues to carry a significant economic advantage.
Workers ages 25 and older with bachelor’s degrees earned median weekly wages of $1,578 in 2025 and had an unemployment rate of 2.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers with only high school diplomas earned $966 per week and had an unemployment rate of 4.3%.
The academy’s alternative centers on what Biyani calls “proof of work.”
Gagan Biyani, founder and CEO of the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, works with students at the AI-focused academy in San Francisco. (Courtesy Horowitz Andreessen Academy)
“We’re looking for students who have proof of work. So, proof of work is a student who has spent time during their high school career actually building things and shipping them into the world,” he said.
Biyani said that could include building an app with hundreds of thousands or millions of users, starting a business that generates revenue or solving a difficult technical problem.
The school says its founding partners include Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI,…
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