Marc Andreessen is, arguably, the most famous venture capitalist on earth. Cofounder of the legendary VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, inventor of the first popular web browser, and by reputation such a widely read intellectual egghead that his colleagues call him "MarcGPT." And as befits his nickname, Andreessen is a big believer in a future powered by artificial intelligence. His firm — "a16z" to Silicon Valley sophisticates — has invested in Elon Musk's xAI and Sam Altman's OpenAI. Andreessen has called AI "our alchemy, our Philosopher's Stone," and "a universal problem solver" that "ramps up the capabilities of our machines and ourselves."

But for Andreessen, there is one job that AI will never do as well as a living, breathing human being: his.

Think I'm kidding? On an a16z podcast last week, Andreessen opined that being a venture capitalist may be a profession that is "quite literally timeless." "When the AIs are doing everything else," he continued, "that may be one of the last remaining fields that people are still doing."

Here's the logic. Andreessen starts by talking about all the things that people thought might disrupt the way VCs operate — like the Craigslist-style approach of AngelList, or crowdfunding. "The other form of structural change, of course, is AI," Andreessen says. Then he issues a challenge to the AI crowd: "All right, smart guys. You're sitting around doing all this analysis, and you have all these smart people doing all this modeling and all this research and so forth. Why can't you just plug this into Claude or ChatGPT or Gemini and have it tell you what to invest in?"

The reason, Andreessen explains, is that it takes a VC like him to know how to pick a winner. He throws out a bunch of examples, going all the way back to the whaling industry 500 years ago: book publishers, movie studio executives, talent scouts at music labels. (I'll spare you the details here, but I spoke with an economist who has analyzed the whaling industry, and he says MarcGPT is pretty much wrong on every count.) Andreessen insists that these are key jobs that spring up "any time you have a part of the economy in which you have an entrepreneur going on a high-risk, high-return endeavor where it is far from clear what is going to work, and there are many more aspirants than there is money to fund them."

Here, Andreessen argues, is where the human element is irreplaceable. "You're not just funding them," he says. "You have to actually work with them to execute the entire project. That's art. That's not science. That's art. We would like it to be science, but, like, it's art."

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like a lot of AI folks have been trying to tell us that AI can make art. Last year, even Andreessen said that AI had enough of a sense of humor to "save comedy." But apparently it can't do his art.

Which brings us to the wildest bit. Andreessen says he knows that venture investing is an ineffable, intuitive, intrinsically human skill precisely because venture capitalists are very bad at it. "The great VCs have a success rate of getting, I don't know, two out of 10 of the great companies of the decade, right?" he says. "If it was science, you could eventually have somebody who just dials in and gets eight out of 10. But in the real world, it's not like that. You're in the fluke business, and there's an intangibility to it. There's a taste aspect."

Even accepting Andreessen's premise — that VCs contribute better advice than AI on how to run a business — it looks like he's wrong about whether he's replaceable. In a recent survey by the enterprise software company SAP, 75% of C-level executives at billion-dollar companies said AI already gives better business advice than their friends and colleagues. And 38% said they trust AI to make business decisions. The kind of people Andreessen counts on for his livelihood are already starting to think he's obsolete.

But Andreessen's portrait of how venture capital works doesn't actually accord with reality. VC investors say they're looking for disruptive innovation. In practice, they have operated pretty much like any good-old-boy network, consistently funding way more white men than women or people of color — often the same white men they knew from previous startups, whether they succeeded or not. And economists say it's an open question whether VCs actually add value or are just the most basic kind of "pickers," identifying companies that would have been successful without them. That's the kind of operation that large language models are pretty good at. Identifying patterns in big sets of data is, like, their whole thing.

I actually kind of agree with Andreessen. I'm skeptical that any form of AI — much less the generative, chatbot-type products of OpenAI or Google — will ever be able to do high-level critical and creative thinking as well as a human. But the reality is, the quality of the AI's work might not matter. History is essentially one big graveyard of artisanal jobs that wound up being automated, even though the automation produced an objectively inferior product. Andreessen, like so many of us, wants to think he's special — that no machine can ever do what he does. But he can't have it both ways. If he's right that artificial intelligence can't perform the kinds of skills his job requires, then he's wrong to be investing in companies that promise it can.

In any case, when Andreessen says "AI can't do my job," the job he's describing isn't a venture capitalist. It's not even a run-of-the-mill investor, who buys stock in a company. The core function that Andreessen is lionizing is being a gatekeeper — the power over who gets to join the club of influence.

An AI that trained on every decision every venture capitalist ever made and tried to make them line up with various definitions of success might go on to choose very different kinds of companies. In a world of vcAI, startups might finally get backed on their merit, instead of on how much their founders look and talk like Andreessen. Who knows? An AI VC's loony, black-box heuristics might favor things like whether an idea is "good for humanity" or "promotes class mobility." What if it started to hallucinate something about "redistributing wealth"?

On this level, at least, Andreessen is probably right. No machine could ever replace him.

Adam Rogers is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

• Rune, a defense tech startup, raised $6.2 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
• Founded by former Anduril employees, Rune develops software to manage military field logistics.
• Investors are increasingly backing defense tech startups to modernize military capabilities.

Rune, a defense tech startup based in Roslyn, Va., emerged from stealth Wednesday with $6.2 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. Point72 Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, and several defense industry executives, including Anduril's senior VP of software engineering Gokul Subramanian, participated.

Founded in 2024 by former Anduril employees David Tuttle and Peter Goldsborough, Rune is developing software to help the military manage field logistics. The current process of deciding whether a particular unit needs more food, fuel, or ammunition is "almost entirely a manual, human-centric process" that "runs off Excel spreadsheets," Tuttle, cofounder and CEO of Rune, told Business Insider.

TyrOS, Rune's software named after the Norse god of war Tyr, gathers data manually tabulated by frontline units. It then autonomously tracks supplies such as food or equipment, predicts future resupply needs, and helps the military determine when and where to restock, especially for resource—and location-constrained environments. An AI model that Rune is currently building enables its predictive modeling capabilities, but the company is also having initial conversations with "larger AI providers" to explore potential partnerships, Tuttle said.

The 11-person company has developed a prototype of the software, which "has already been in the hands of actual warfighters" in training exercises, Tuttle said. While Rune's software currently relies on manual data entry, TyrOS can integrate with government-owned software to automate logistics data collection, a capability that could become increasingly standard as other defense tech companies develop such technologies.

While several companies manage commercial logistics, TyrOS is built for the unique challenges of military operations. Rune is developing the software to work in areas with limited or disrupted communication, known as DDIL environments. It also enables military units to share data with each other, ensuring connectivity even if one unit's connection is compromised.

In recent years, investors in Silicon Valley have increasingly doubled down on defense tech startups, reflecting a growing commitment to companies hoping to strengthen national security and modernize military capabilities. "What we're seeing is a moment in time where technology can shift the balance between countries," Chris Morales, a partner at Point72 Ventures who also served in the US Navy for eight years, said. "And we're seeing teams that can actually take advantage of the moment."

Defense contractors and startups are also building in the military logistics space. Lockheed Martin, for example, develops battle management and equipment logistics software. Adyton, another startup, is working on mobile tools to streamline communication about equipment and other needs across the military.

Before cofounding Rune, Tuttle led the command and control hardware business at Andruil, where he met cofounder and CTO Peter Goldsborough. Tuttle previously worked at the Joint Special Operations Command, a special missions unit, and in investment banking at Citi. He also served as a field artillery officer in the US Army.

Goldsborough also worked in command and control at Anduril, where he was a chief engineer.

"We spent a lot of time on what we say, how do you fight the force?" Tuttle said. "But equally important and more so, even now is, how do you sustain the force? How do you keep the force fighting past the first day, two days — past the first 72 hours in an actual conflict?"

Almost a year into building the company, the cofounders will use Rune's new funding to continue building out its engineering, business development, and product teams, Tuttle said.

"July Fourth was actually our first official day as Rune employees, which is pretty cool," Tuttle said. "We've been off to the races since."

• Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran acquitted in a subway killing, has been hired by Andreessen Horowitz.
• A16z said Penny would take the role of deal partner to support the VC firm's American Dynamism team.
• He was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide last year after choking a subway rider.

Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran who was cleared last year in a subway killing that drew widespread attention, has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a deal partner.

Penny will support the venture capital firm's American Dynamism team, its website said.

In 2023, Penny was arrested and charged in connection with the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless street performer whom Penny restrained using a chokehold on the New York City subway in May of that year. Neely, who had a history of mental illness, was said to be yelling at passengers.

A New York jury deadlocked on a manslaughter charge, which was dismissed, but found Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in December.

In an internal statement seen by The Free Press, David Ulevitch, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, also known as A16z, said, "Daniel is a Marine Corps veteran who served his country and, in a frightening moment in a crowded New York City subway car, did a courageous thing."

Vice President JD Vance reacted to Penny joining A16z in an X post, saying, "Incredible news."

A16z did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

An early investor in Silicon Valley giants such as Facebook and Stripe, the firm set up its American Dynamism group in 2023 to invest in founders and companies that support "the national interest."

The venture capital giant, led by the investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, has defined the national interest broadly, including aerospace, defense, and public safety as well as education, housing, and manufacturing.

Among the group's top investments so far is Anduril, a drone maker cofounded by the billionaire Palmer Luckey. It was most recently valued at $14 billion.

Advising the new White House administration has been a top priority for A16z's Andreessen. In a podcast episode in December, the firm's cofounder said he had spent about "half" his time at Mar-a-Lago after Election Day discussing policy issues with Donald Trump, then the president-elect.

• Elon Musk fixes the biggest problems at his companies every week, Marc Andreessen says.
• Musk quickly tackles pressing issues by working directly with engineers and coders, the VC said.
• The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's method attracts great talent and inspires deep loyalty, Andreessen said.

Elon Musk has built some of the world's most valuable companies, from Tesla to SpaceX. A key driver of his success is a relentless focus on solving problems fast, often by working directly with the engineers or coders who've gotten stuck, Marc Andreessen says.

The legendary venture capitalist shared his insights from working closely with Musk on X, xAI, and SpaceX during a recent episode of the "Modern Wisdom" podcast.

Unlike many CEOs, Musk is devoted to understanding every aspect of his businesses, the Andreessen Horowitz cofounder and general partner said. He's "in the trenches and talking directly to the people who do the work," and acting as the "lead problem solver in the organization."

Musk's businesses include Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI, The Boring Company, and X — formerly Twitter. Andreessen said that every week at each of his companies, Musk "identifies the biggest problem that the company is having that week and he fixes it. And then he does that every week for 52 weeks in a row. And then each of his companies has solved the 52 biggest problems that year, in that year."

In contrast, the bosses of most large corporations spend months or years holding meetings, watching presentations, and conducting legal and compliance reviews before they address their most pressing issues, Andreessen told host Chris Williamson.

Musk sees his businesses almost like assembly lines, and he focuses on removing bottlenecks and speeding up the conveyer belt a little more every week, the billionaire VC and Netscape cofounder said.

His laser focus on fixing problems attracts exceptionally talented people to his companies who want to work extremely hard and meet exacting standards, fueling further success for his businesses, Andreessen said.

Straight to the source

When Musk spots a bottleneck, he cuts through the layers of management to talk to the people actually working on the line or writing the code, Andreessen said.

"So he's not asking the VP of engineering to ask the director of engineering to ask the manager to ask the individual contributor to write a report that's to be reviewed in three weeks," the early-stage investor said. "He would throw them all out of the window."

Andreessen said Musk's approach of finding the person grappling with a particular issue, and then working with them to solve it, inspires deep loyalty.

The person thinks "if I'm up against a problem I don't know how to solve, freaking Elon Musk is going to show up in his Gulfstream, and he's going to sit with me overnight in front of the keyboard, or in front of the manufacturing line, and he's going to help me figure this out," the tech guru said.

Musk's strategy of tackling problem after problem has a "catalytic, multiplicative effect" that helps his businesses power ahead of rivals, Andreessen added.

In the past, Musk has been criticized for spreading himself too thin and not allocating enough time, energy, and resources to any one business like Tesla.

The world's wealthiest man has also said at points that he's working too hard and juggling too much, and his "hardcore" management style has been slammed as brutal and mercurial.

But in terms of technical progress and value generation, Musk's approach of getting involved quickly to fix things appears to be paying off.