Ashton Kutcher leaves Sound Ventures to start new VC firm with Morgan Beller

In short: Ashton Kutcher is stepping away from Sound Ventures to launch a new venture capital firm with investor Morgan Beller.

What happened

Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures, the investment firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary about 11 years ago. He plans to start a separate venture capital firm with Morgan Beller, according to reporting confirmed by The Wall Street Journal and covered by TechCrunch.

Venture capital is money that investors put into young companies that are still growing. Kutcher and Beller say they want to focus on early-stage startups, meaning companies that are closer to the idea and prototype stage than to being fully established.

The new firm has not announced a public name yet. Beller previously worked as a general partner at NFX, and she has also worked at Andreessen Horowitz. She previously co-led Libra, a cryptocurrency project at Meta.

Kutcher will continue to advise Sound Ventures even after leaving. Meanwhile, Guy Oseary and Sound Ventures general partner Effie Epstein are expected to advise Kutcher and Beller’s new firm.

Why it matters

This move hints at where some AI investment may be heading next. Sound Ventures is known for backing major AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, which are like the “brains” behind popular AI systems. Kutcher and Beller appear more focused on what sits underneath those labs, like the infrastructure and energy that power AI (think of it like investing in power plants and highways, not just the cars that drive on them).

Source: TechCrunch AI