Ashton Kutcher exits Sound Ventures to launch new AI infrastructure fund
What's the deal? Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures, the firm he co-founded with Guy OsearyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → 11 years ago, to start a new venture capital firm with Morgan BellerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The unnamed firm will target early-stage bets in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech. Neither the firm's name nor its fund size has been disclosed.
Beller previously co-led Libra, Meta's cryptocurrency project, spent three years at Andreessen Horowitz, and served as a general partner at seed-stage firm NFX.
Why now? The split is partly strategic. Sound Ventures has drifted toward later-stage deals, while Kutcher wants to back founders at the earliest stages.
The parting is amicable. Kutcher will keep advising Sound Ventures, while Oseary and third general partner Effie EpsteinDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → will advise the new firm.
Sound Ventures manages close to $2 billion and continues under Oseary's leadership. It backed OpenAI and Anthropic early, alongside Brex, Gusto, and Fei-Fei LiDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s World Labs.
What could go wrong? The timing puts Kutcher and Beller in a crowded field.
Founders Fund just closed a $6 billion growth fund for AI and defence tech, Accel raised $5 billion for late-stage AI, and Eclipse closed over $1 billion for early-stage deep tech.
Whether a firm without a public name or disclosed fund size can compete against established deep tech investors is the open question.
The signal: The move tracks a shift in AI money — from the model labs to the layer beneath them.
Most mega-funds are writing hundred-million-dollar cheques into companies with proven product-market fit. Kutcher and Beller are betting the better opportunity sits upstream, in the compute and energy those AI giants depend on.
Global startup funding hit a record $297 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Specialist early-stage investors clearly see room to fund the picks and shovels of AI.
Image credit: Jennifer Jacquemart
Read more: The Next Web, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal
