A side-by-side comparison of two AI investors: Andreessen Horowitz (Power Score 82/100) and SoftBank Vision Fund (Power Score 82/100), both ranked among the most active firms tracked in this category.
| Andreessen Horowitz | SoftBank Vision Fund | |
|---|---|---|
| Power Score™ | 82/100 | 82/100 |
| Assets Managed | $90B+ | $175B (platform assets, 2022) |
| Founded | 2009 | 2017 |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, CA | London, UK |
| Sectors | AI, Crypto, Fintech, Consumer, Enterprise Software, Developer Tools, Cybersecurity | AI, Enterprise Software, Consumer Internet, Logistics, Cybersecurity, Climate, Developer Tools, Deep Tech |
Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen, the co-creator of the Netscape browser, and Ben Horowitz, a former enterprise software executive, a16z set out to build a different kind of VC firm - one staffed with in-house recruiters, marketers, and engineers to support founders directly, not just write checks. The firm's stage-agnostic, software-eats-the-world thesis has since carried it into crypto, biotech, and AI, backing companies from seed rounds through late-stage growth across every category it touches.
View full Andreessen Horowitz profile →SoftBank Vision Fund remains the clearest example of venture capital run at platform scale, having launched Vision Fund 1 at $100 billion in 2017. Its current messaging has become far more coherent than the early 'invest in everything transformed by AI' caricature: the firm is now organized around a full-stack AI ecosystem of hardware, infrastructure, and applications, with CEO Alex Clavel's leadership stressing discipline, monetization, and cash-runway quality across the portfolio. That shift matters because it shows the platform institutionalizing what was previously perceived as founder-led opportunism under Masayoshi Son, while still concentrating unusually large checks into category leaders - DoorDash's $71.2 billion IPO valuation stands as SVF1's best fully-exited outcome, with a $7.3 billion gain.
View full SoftBank Vision Fund profile →