a16z is building a complex and sophisticated media infrastructure.
Author: @aaronjmars
Translated by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Andreessen Horowitz, abbreviated as @a16z, is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Once regarded as a top venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, it is now evolving into a more ambitious organization—an engine that comprehensively coordinates technology and political realities.
In August 2025, the most obvious signal emerged: Alex Danco (@Alex_Danco) joined a16z as Editor-at-Large, responsible for leading the company's entire written content output. This appointment is not merely a public relations position. Danco views writing as a "power transfer technology," believing that legitimacy is not unilaterally "bestowed" by institutions but achieved through "mutual inspiration" between authors and readers.
However, Danco's addition is just a part of this vast machine. In November 2025, a16z released its New Media Manifesto, revealing an operational model that far exceeds traditional venture capital boundaries. The company has now explicitly proposed a service called "Timeline Takeover"—coordinated content through videos, podcasts, articles, and social media to help portfolio companies achieve the goal of "winning the day on the internet."
Building a Media Machine: a16z's Narrative Revolution
a16z is constructing a complex and sophisticated media infrastructure. Led by Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg), the new media team has gathered internal content creators known as "online legends" and "forward deployed New Media" personnel who embed directly during portfolio company product launches. Additionally, they have established a high-impact talent network to amplify selected narratives.
In October 2025, David Booth (@david__booth) joined a16z as a partner and head of ecosystems, focusing on building what he calls a "preferential attachment" mechanism. This mechanism aims to direct resources, talent, and attention more towards a16z's portfolio companies rather than competitors. As Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) explained when announcing Booth's addition, startups need to enter a "resource accumulation cycle… from qualified executives and technical staff to future follow-on financing, brand positive momentum, public recognition, customers, revenue, and even influence in government."
To further strengthen its media layout, a16z plans to launch an 8-week New Media Fellowship program starting in January 2026, aimed at training operators, creators, and narrators and assigning them to portfolio companies. This is not just a consulting service but a dedicated parallel talent pipeline for narrative warfare.
The operational capabilities demonstrated by a16z are impressive. The team publishes content five times a week across multiple channels, operates an internal video production department inspired by "new media legends" like Mr. Beast, and trains on-site. Furthermore, they maintain "group chats, dinners, events, and hidden networks" to help talented and trustworthy individuals meet each other.
One of the portfolio companies showcases the logical endpoint of this media machine: DoubleSpeed (@rareZuhair). This company uses artificial intelligence to control thousands of social media accounts, ensuring that these accounts behave "as much like real people as possible." Its promotional slogan is straightforward and bold: "No more hiring."
Twitter's Frontline Battle
The construction of a16z's media infrastructure can be traced back to 2022 when the company invested $400 million to support Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter. As of September 2024, this investment reportedly incurred a loss of $288 million, but the financial loss is not the main focus. Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) stated at the time: "Elon is the person we know, and possibly the only one in the world with the courage, wisdom, and ability to solve these problems and create the public space we all hope for and deserve."
a16z quickly dispatched personnel to embed within the Twitter team. Sriram Krishnan (@sriramk), a16z's general partner focused on the crypto space, publicly announced that he was "temporarily assisting Elon Musk in managing Twitter along with other great people," stating: "I (and a16z) believe this is an extremely important company that can have a significant impact on the world."
Infrastructure Layout for Prediction Markets
However, the media machine is only part of a16z's strategy. In his article "Prediction: The Heir of Postmodernism," Alex Danco proposed that prediction markets represent a fundamental reshaping of the foundations of civilization, comparable in importance to modernism and postmodernism.
In October 2025, a16z, with a valuation of $5 billion, co-led a $300 million Series D funding round for the prediction market platform Kalshi. Partner Alex Immerman stated that prediction markets have "the opportunity to become the largest and most important financial market of the future."
a16z attempted to nominate its executive, Kalshi board member Brian Quintenz (@CFTCquintenz), to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency responsible for regulating prediction markets. However, due to significant controversies surrounding conflicts of interest and opposition from figures in the crypto space, including the Winklevoss twins, the White House withdrew Quintenz's nomination in September or October 2025. This failed nomination revealed a16z's ambition to seek influence in regulatory matters while exposing the limitations it currently faces.
Meanwhile, trading volume in prediction markets has exploded. From early June 2024 to the election week of that year, trading volume increased 42 times, with monthly trading totals on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi reaching billions of dollars. During the 2024 election, journalists and Wall Street traders began to rely on prediction markets, which "outperformed polls" and became "signals that could be referenced globally."
When CEOs like Brian Armstrong start mentioning specific cryptocurrencies based on market signals in investor communications, this feedback loop becomes evident: markets are not just predictive tools; they are also coordinating reality.
Even a16z's market design expert Scott Kominers (@skominers) admits, "Prediction markets themselves are not always ideal information aggregation tools: even for global 'macro' events, prediction markets may not be reliable; for 'micro' issues, the size of the prediction pool may be too small to provide meaningful signals." However, Kalshi's annual trading volume has expanded to over $50 billion, growing more than 25 times since early 2024. At this scale, the boundaries between prediction and coordination are gradually blurring.
Reconstructing the Political Landscape
Marc Andreessen supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, even tweeting "I'm with her." However, by 2024, his stance had completely shifted. He and Ben Horowitz donated over $5 million to support Trump, with Andreessen alone contributing up to $33.5 million to political groups supporting cryptocurrency, more than six times the amount he directly donated to Trump.
Andreessen stated that the Biden administration's proposal to tax unrealized capital gains was "the last straw," as it would force startups to pay taxes on valuation growth. He criticized the Biden administration for promoting a "soft authoritarian social revolution" and pointed out the direct scrutiny pressure the government places on tech companies.
This coordinated action has delved into more secretive levels. Andreessen organized WhatsApp group chats, which became "meme sources for mainstream opinion," described as a "modern version of underground publications" (samizdat), driving a nationwide "vibe shift." These encrypted and self-destructing groups are referred to as "the dark matter of American politics and media," where "an astonishing shift of political gravity towards Trump is shaped and negotiated."
Current a16z new media team leader Erik Torenberg played a key role in organizing these groups. He is responsible for coordinating a16z's "Timeline Takeover" service while also shaping the political group chats that influence the discourse of the 2024 election.
a16z's Legitimacy Framework
a16z sees itself as a "legitimacy bank," where entrepreneurs can "withdraw legitimacy on credit or make legitimacy deposits." This is not merely a metaphor. In their article "How to be Legitimate," Alex Danco and former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky outline the history of legitimacy shaping in the tech industry—from the special interest groups of the 1960s to the authoritative reviews of PC Magazine in the 1980s, to today's ecosystem composed of coordinated influence.
The core insight is that once a legitimacy framework is established, what you are selling is no longer a product but a vision of the future. As Sinofsky explained, when Microsoft sold to enterprises, "they just wanted to hear my ten-year plan." Legitimacy comes from your ability to "credibly predict the future."
This is exactly what a16z is building: by controlling the infrastructure upon which our understanding of possibilities relies, certain futures are made to seem inevitable.
Integration of the Tech Ecosystem
In April 2025, a16z officially launched the "American Innovators Network" in collaboration with Y Combinator and several AI companies, positioning itself as "America's small tech ecosystem" and claiming to lead the next wave of innovation. Their public stance is: "If a candidate supports an optimistic, tech-driven future, we support them. If they want to stifle important technologies, we oppose them."
Here’s a look at the ecosystem a16z has built:
Media Infrastructure: The new media team led by Torenberg provides "timeline takeover as a service," internal production capabilities, and front-line deployed narrative experts.
Talent Pipeline: The New Media Fellowship trains embedded teams for portfolio companies.
Platform Layout: A $400 million investment supporting Twitter/X, with personnel embedded during the transition.
Market Infrastructure: As a major investor in Kalshi (valued at $5 billion), betting on prediction markets as a coordination mechanism.
Coordination Network: Including WhatsApp group chats, dinners, and "secret networks that help talented and trustworthy individuals meet each other."
Political Alliances: Establishing direct relationships with the Trump administration, with political donations exceeding $40 million.
Attempting to Influence Regulation: Although Quintenz's nomination failed, it highlighted their ambitions and current limitations.
F1 Pit Stop Theory
a16z uses the metaphor of F1 racing to describe itself. General Partners are the drivers, but "the outcome of the race is decided long before it starts, by those who design the best chassis, hire top engineers, train the pit crews, and build a fervent fan base to maintain the flow of sponsorship funds."
As David Booth wrote: "Adrian Newey has not won any races, but his arrival as the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Red Bull transformed them from a cash-burning mid-tier team into a generational world champion team. The top venture capital firms of the next decade will need not only the best 'drivers' but also to make thoughtful investments in their 'machines on the track.'"
The machine a16z is building has multiple engines: one that manufactures legitimacy through coordinated media; one that coordinates capital and attention through prediction markets; one that coordinates political outcomes through encrypted group chats and strategic donations; and one that coordinates talent flow through fellowship programs and "ecosystem" infrastructure.
What Does This Mean?
When prediction markets are widely adopted by institutions and integrated with the media machine, they will no longer be just predictive tools. Markets will generate "a real-time probability that is more disciplined than polls, commentators, or headlines"—and as journalists, traders, and corporate executives make decisions based on these probabilities, the markets will become self-fulfilling.
According to a16z's own framework, "prediction" is gradually becoming a new paradigm after postmodernism—a new way to organize human attention, capital, and action. a16z has positioned itself at every key node:
They invest in platforms that set odds;
Hire media teams that decide which issues are important;
Organize group chats to coordinate political strategies;
Cultivate the talent needed for the next generation of enterprises;
Attempt (though temporarily unsuccessful) to place their people in regulatory agencies.
This is not a conspiracy, but a complex system designed by those who understand that "controlling the infrastructure of belief is more valuable than controlling the infrastructure of production."
The failure of Quintenz's nomination indicates that this strategy still has limitations. Opposition from within the crypto industry, concerns about conflicts of interest, and complex political factors can still prevent what seem to be overly obvious "regulatory capture" actions.
But the broader machine continues to operate. The new media team is expanding, prediction markets are growing, the coordination network is deepening, and the fellowship program is beginning to place trained narrative experts into portfolio companies.
The goal of this game is not to predict the future, but to build the infrastructure that determines which futures can be understood, which questions will be raised, and which answers appear authoritative.
a16z is openly constructing this infrastructure and demonstrating remarkable transparency about what they are doing—while most are still debating whether prediction markets are "more accurate than polls."
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