Marc Andreessen

Whether they love him or hate him, people pay attention when Marc Andreessen speaks. The venture capitalist is as responsible as anyone for the modern tech industry that powers the global economy, having cocreated the first mainstream web browser, Netscape Navigator, in the early 1990s. The VC firm he cofounded in 2009, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z for short) has backed some of tech’s biggest names, including Airbnb, Facebook, Stripe, GitHub, and Lyft, and with $44 billion in assets under management, the firm is expanding into public markets investment, wealth management, and private equity. Andreessen’s prescient 2011 essay, “Why Software Is Eating the World,” broadened his influence beyond tech circles. But some of his more recent prognostications, advocating for unfettered AI development and endorsing Donald Trump for president, have been marked by a combative tone that’s made the internet pioneer a divisive figure in Silicon Valley.