Ashton Kutcher is leaving Sound Ventures, the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago, to start a new VC fund with Morgan Beller, the Wall Street Journal reported. Beller, until recently a general partner at seed-focused NFX, previously co-led Meta's Libra cryptocurrency project and spent three years as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. The new firm's name remains a mystery, but its focus is clear: early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech - startups built on hard science rather than just software.

Kutcher's departure isn't a sign of trouble at Sound Ventures, which backs heavy hitters like Brex, Gusto, OpenAI, Anthropic, and World Labs. The split signals where AI money is heading: Sound made concentrated bets on category-leading AI labs, while Kutcher's new fund chases the infrastructure and energy powering them. “He and his fund consistently make it onto [my] rankings of top unicorn investors. An interesting case!” Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev wrote on X.

Kutcher has known OpenAI's Sam Altman since the Loopt days, long before ChatGPT. The exit stemmed from differing views on startup stages - Sound leans toward established companies, while Kutcher and Beller go for very early-stage bets. Despite leaving, Kutcher will advise Sound; Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will advise the new firm.