Ashton Kutcher Leaves Sound Ventures for a New AI Fund With Morgan Beller

Actor and investor Ashton Kutcher is leaving the venture fund Sound Ventures, which he co-founded with Guy Oseary about 11 years ago (around 2015), to launch a new venture firm with Morgan Beller, TechCrunch reported, citing sources.

What the new fund will focus on

Kutcher and Beller's new firm will make early-stage investments in three areas:

• AI infrastructure
• Energy
• Deep tech

Kutcher believes the next generation of transformational companies will come from these areas, not from yet more consumer apps built on AI.

Why investors are turning to AI infrastructure

The focus on energy is no accident. Language models and the data centers that train them and run inference need many times more electricity than expected just a few years ago, and that demand has become one of the main constraints on the pace of the AI industry. Following infrastructure funds, a growing number of venture investors are shifting capital into this area, from energy startups to engineering solutions for data centers, betting that demand for such infrastructure will grow alongside demand for the AI models themselves.

Why a specialized fund rather than a generalist one

Kutcher and Oseary founded Sound Ventures about 11 years ago, and in that time the fund has become a prominent name in the venture community, with a broad portfolio of bets on consumer and technology startups. The new project with Morgan Beller is built differently: instead of a broad focus, it concentrates from the start on the infrastructure that underpins AI growth, from data center energy to the deep technologies behind the next generation of computing.

What deep tech means for the new fund

In the venture industry, deep tech usually refers to startups working at the intersection of fundamental science and engineering, from new materials and manufacturing processes to energy technologies, rather than software products alone. Combined with the fund's other two focus areas, AI infrastructure and energy, this points to a bet by Kutcher and Beller on companies that build the physical foundation for the growth of the AI industry, not applications on top of ready-made models.

What this means

Kutcher's move from Sound Ventures' diversified portfolio to a narrowly focused fund for AI infrastructure, energy and deep tech reflects a broader trend in the venture industry: capital is shifting from bets on consumer AI applications to bets on the physical infrastructure without which scaling AI models is impossible.

Frequently asked questions

When was Sound Ventures founded?

According to TechCrunch, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary founded Sound Ventures about 11 years ago, around 2015.

What areas will Kutcher's new fund focus on?

The new venture firm with Morgan Beller will invest at an early stage in AI infrastructure, energy and deep tech, areas where, according to Kutcher, the next generation of transformational companies will emerge.