via TechCrunch AI
Ashton Kutcher Departs Sound Ventures to Co-Found New VC Firm with Morgan Beller
Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures—the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago—to establish a new venture capital fund with Morgan Beller, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Beller, a former general partner at seed-focused VC firm NFX, also co-led Meta’s cryptocurrency project Libra and spent nearly three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
TechCrunch had independently learned that Kutcher was preparing to exit; the WSJ report confirms the move and provides new details about his partnership with Beller. The name of the new firm has not yet been announced.
Kutcher’s departure does not appear to signal trouble at Sound Ventures. The firm, which backs companies like Brex and Gusto, was also an early investor in OpenAI, Anthropic, and Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs. Unlike situations where investors leave underperforming firms, Sound Ventures remains strong.
The split is significant for what it reveals about where AI capital is flowing next. Sound Ventures built its reputation on concentrated, high-conviction bets on leading AI labs. Kutcher’s new fund, by contrast, appears focused on the layer beneath those companies—the infrastructure and energy that power them.
“He and his fund consistently make it onto [my] rankings of top unicorn investors. An interesting case!” Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev, who tracks top-performing VCs, wrote on X.
Kutcher has known OpenAI CEO Sam Altman since Altman founded Loopt, years before ChatGPT launched.
According to the WSJ, Kutcher’s decision to leave was partly driven by differing views on which startup stages to target. Sound Ventures prefers backing more established companies, while Kutcher and Beller aim to invest in very early-stage startups.
The new firm will focus on early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech startups—ventures built around hard science and engineering breakthroughs rather than software alone.
Despite his exit, Kutcher will continue to serve as an adviser to Sound Ventures. Meanwhile, Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will advise Kutcher and Beller’s new firm.
Looking ahead to 2026, the AI investment landscape is expected to intensify around infrastructure and energy, making Kutcher and Beller’s focus a potentially prescient bet. As global demand for compute power surges, specialized funds targeting hardware and energy solutions may see outsized opportunities.