Ashton Kutcher leaves Sound Ventures to launch AI infrastructure VC with Morgan Beller

Ashton Kutcher is stepping away from Sound Ventures, the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago, to launch a new venture capital fund with Morgan Beller, the Wall Street Journal reported. Beller was previously a general partner at NFX and co-led the Libra cryptocurrency project at Meta, and spent three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. The new firm, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, will focus on early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech—startups built on hard science and engineering breakthroughs rather than software alone. Kutcher’s departure is not due to underperformance; Sound has backed companies like Brex, Gusto, and was an early investor in OpenAI, Anthropic, and Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs.

The split signals a strategic divergence in where AI money is heading. Sound built its reputation on concentrated bets in category-leading AI labs, while Kutcher’s new fund will chase the infrastructure and energy layers that power those models. Kutcher and Beller’s focus on early-stage deep tech marks a shift from backing established companies—which Sound preferred—to betting on raw science breakthroughs. Kutcher will remain an adviser to Sound, while Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will advise the new firm. Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev noted Kutcher’s consistent top rankings among unicorn investors, calling it “an interesting case!”