Ali Yahya to Leave a16z crypto and Start Open Software Infrastructure Company

Ali Yahya, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto team, plans to leave the firm and start a company focused on open software infrastructure, confirming a departure that had been expected.

Yahya said he has decided to leave a16z and move to San Francisco. He described the venture as being in its early stages, with a focus on infrastructure that can support open software ecosystems. The announcement confirms the departure that had been expected.

Yahya recalled meeting Chris Dixon, Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen in 2017 while doing robotics research at Google Brain. He was interested in open-source software but had little experience with investing, he said. Dixon invited him to leave Google and help build a16z’s crypto business, which Dixon was then running alone. Yahya said building the team and helping founders became some of the most meaningful work of his life.

For the new venture, Yahya described two changes he expects to reshape software. AI use, now largely centered on individuals, may shift toward collaboration among groups of people and multiple AI agents, potentially creating large open networks. He also said lower software development costs make it practical to create applications for specific needs and discard them after one use.

Yahya sees those shifts changing the software stack and potentially enabling operating systems mediated by AI and an AI-native developer ecosystem. He invited people working on related ideas, especially those in the Bay Area, to connect.