
a16z has raised $1.1bn to invest in the physical layer of AI
THE SO WHAT
Top-tier venture money explicitly targeting chips, memory, networking, storage, and data centers means AI infra is being treated as a standalone growth asset class, not a sidecar to cloud. If you build anything that touches the physical stack, assume more capital, more competition, and faster pricing changes on capacity and components over the next 24–36 months.
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