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Overview

The a16z Open Source AI Grant program supports developers and small teams building critical pieces of the open source AI stack. Andreessen Horowitz launched it on August 30, 2023, arguing that a thriving open source ecosystem is essential to AI's future but that its builders often lack the GPU compute and resources to finish and maintain their work. The funding is a grant, not an investment or SAFE note, so recipients can keep working without pressure to generate financial returns.

a16z has announced three batches. The first (August 2023) funded Jon Durbin (Airoboros), Jeremy Howard (fast.ai), Woosuk Kwon and Zhuohan Li (vLLM) and Nous Research. The second (December 13, 2023) funded Common Crawl, SkyPilot, LMSys (Vicuna, FastChat, Chatbot Arena), LLaVA and Deforum. The third (June 26, 2025) focused on benchmarks and experimentation with frontier models: SGLang, Ostris, Open WebUI, SWE-Bench and SWE-Agent, ARC Prize, @truth_terminal, Pliny and Janus.

The program is run by a16z's AI infrastructure team. a16z does not publish grant amounts, an application form or a schedule for future batches.

Program details

Designed for Researchers, Builders. The program is remote. Participation is generally async.

Who it is for

Open source AI developers, researchers, hackers and small teams working outside the major labs on important open infrastructure: model fine-tuning, inference and serving, training and evaluation tooling, datasets, benchmarks and experimental research. a16z publishes no formal eligibility rules.

See if you are eligible

Admissions and application

There is no public application form. a16z selects recipients and announces them in batches. The practical path is to build widely used open source AI work that a16z's AI infrastructure team would notice.

Benefits

  • Grant funding to continue open source AI work, which a16z frames around the compute and resource gap open source builders face.
  • No equity, SAFE or expectation of financial return.
  • Public recognition from a16z in the batch announcement.

Timeline

  • Aug 30, 2023: program launched with batch 1.
  • Dec 13, 2023: batch 2.
  • Jun 26, 2025: batch 3.
  • No next batch announced.

Outcomes and track record

Grantees include some of the most used open source AI projects: vLLM and SGLang (LLM serving), LMSys (Chatbot Arena), Common Crawl, Nous Research, fast.ai, Open WebUI, SWE-Bench and ARC Prize.

How to approach this opportunity

  1. Understand the program

    Review who can apply, how the process works, and whether applications are currently open.

  2. Build relevant evidence

    Keep a visible record of the startups, markets, and founder communities you understand.

  3. Follow the application process

    The program is reported as invitation-led. Focus on relevant sourcing evidence and the relationships described by its official materials.

How compensation works

Non-dilutive grant funding. a16z does not publish grant amounts.

Questions about this program

What is the a16z Open Source AI Grant?

An a16z program, launched August 30, 2023, that gives grant funding (not an investment or SAFE) to open source AI developers and small teams so they can keep working without pressure to make financial returns.

Does a16z take equity for the grant?

No. a16z says the grants are not an investment or a SAFE note.

How do I apply?

a16z has not published an application form or criteria. Recipients are announced in batches by a16z's AI infrastructure team.

Who has received the grant?

Batch 1 (Aug 2023): Airoboros, fast.ai, vLLM, Nous Research. Batch 2 (Dec 2023): Common Crawl, SkyPilot, LMSys, LLaVA, Deforum. Batch 3 (Jun 2025): SGLang, Ostris, Open WebUI, SWE-Bench and SWE-Agent, ARC Prize, @truth_terminal, Pliny and Janus.

How much is each grant?

a16z does not publish grant amounts.

What kinds of projects does it fund?

Critical pieces of the open source AI stack: fine-tuning and instruction-tuning, inference and serving, training and evaluation tools, visual AI communities, benchmarks, and experimental research on frontier model behavior.

Is there a next batch?

The latest batch (the third) was announced June 26, 2025. a16z has not announced a date for another.

Who runs it?

The a16z AI infrastructure team; the announcements are written by general partner Matt Bornstein and investing partner Rajko Radovanovic.

Overlapping type, sectors, regions, or audience

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