Andreessen Horowitz Invests in AI Coding Agent Maker Cognition

Andreessen Horowitz Invests in AI Coding Agent Maker Cognition Andreessen Horowitz has announced a new investment in Cognition, the creator of the Devin AI coding agent, arguing that automating software creation will accelerate productivity across all industries rather than eliminate engineering jobs. Over the past 15 years, technology's share of the market cap among the world's ten largest businesses grew from 31.5% to 94.4%. Devin has scaled from writing 13% of Cognition’s production code to over 90% in the past year. Enterprise adopters include Mercedes Benz (compressing an 8-month COBOL migration to 8 days), Rivian (10x test generation speed), and Itaú (70% automated security patch remediation). The author rejects claims that AI will end software engineering, citing prior shifts like compilers, open source, and cloud computing that increased overall software demand. Agentic Coding and Developer Leverage The author notes that while software traditionally expanded at the speed of human hands, coding agents now allow software to expand at compute speed. As Devin writes over 90% of production code at Cognition, engineers transition from manual coding to acting like system architects managing fleets of agents, significantly amplifying their output. Enterprise Impact and the Demand for Software Enterprise deployments illustrate substantial velocity gains, such as reducing an eight-month legacy COBOL migration to eight days at Mercedes Benz and automating 70% of security vulnerability remediations at Itaú. Historically, technological leaps like compilers and cloud computing lowered production costs and catalyzed broader demand for software and engineers rather than reducing jobs, a pattern expected to continue with AI agents. Backing Cognition's Leadership The investment marks a16z's second backing of founder Scott Wu, whom the firm previously funded at Lunchclub. Highlighting Wu’s background as a three-time International Olympiad in Informatics gold medalist alongside co-founders Steven, Walden, and Russell, the firm emphasized Cognition's speed, execution, and ambition to allow anyone to turn ideas into software.

a16z宣布投资AI编程智能体公司Cognition 风险投资机构a16z宣布投资AI编程智能体Devin的母公司Cognition，认为软件正在从“以人手速度编写”迈向“以算力速度扩展”，并重申技术杠杆将进一步激发软件需求。 全球前十大企业中科技股市值占比已从31.5%上升至94.4%，而Devin已编写了Cognition自身超过90%的生产代码。 梅赛德斯-奔驰利用Devin将原需8个月的COBOL迁移缩减至8天，Rivian测试生成速度提升10倍，Itaú银行自动修复了70%的安全漏洞。 创始人Scott Wu曾获三届国际信息学奥林匹克金牌，此前a16z曾投资其创立的Lunchclub。 以算力速度扩展软件生产 a16z回顾15年前提出的“软件正在吞噬世界”，指出过去软件受限于人类手动编写，如今AI智能体已开始接管主要编码工作。随着Devin在Cognition内部代码生成比例从13%升至90%以上，工程师角色正从逐行编写的手工工人转变为指挥智能体舰队的“架构师”。 企业实证与行业需求扩张 文章列举了企业级落地数据：梅赛德斯-奔驰将8个月的COBOL迁移缩短至8天，Rivian测试生成速度提升10倍，大型金融机构Itaú则借助Devin自动修复了70%的安全漏洞。针对AI将终结软件工程的担忧，a16z反驳称编译技术、开源和云计算的发展历史证明，生产成本降低反而会释放无限需求，Devin提供的技术杠杆将加速所有依赖软件的行业。 投资背景与团队评价 a16z表示本次投资建立在与创始人Scott Wu长达七年的合作基础之上。Scott Wu曾是世界冠军级竞赛程序员，a16z此前曾投资其团队创办的Lunchclub。Cognition秉持“分秒必争”的文化，目标是让任何人都能将想法转化为软件。

[America](https://www.a16z.news/t/america) | [Tech](https://www.a16z.news/t/technology) | [Opinion](https://www.a16z.news/t/opinion) | [Culture](https://www.a16z.news/t/culture) | [Charts](https://www.a16z.news/t/charts) Fifteen years ago, I wrote that [software is eating the world](https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460) - at the time, a controversial claim. The main prediction of the essay has come true. As a simple measure, technology’s share of the market capitalization among the ten largest businesses in the world has gone from 31.5% to 94.4% over that period. Amazingly, this happened even though only 1 in 300 people on earth wrote software, and every line of it had to be written by hand. Software has been eating the world at the speed of human hands. It is about to eat the world at the speed of compute. Three years ago, when Scott Wu and his team began building Devin, the term “coding agent” barely existed. Today, if you talk to any software engineer at a leading company, they’ll tell you that agents write almost all of their code. In the past year, Devin has gone from writing 13% of Cognition’s production code to more than 90%. When agents write 90% of the code, engineers can literally do ten times as much. The 10x engineer becomes the 100x engineer, as they shift from writing artisanal code to operating as the CTO of a fleet of agents. The 1000x engineer isn’t too far behind. As Scott puts it: “Within our lifetime, engineers will go from bricklayers to architects, focusing on the creativity of designing systems rather than the manual labor of putting them together.” At Mercedes Benz, engineers turned what would have been an eight month long COBOL migration into *8 days* of work with Devin. Rivian teams increased their test generation velocity by *10x*. Devin triages and patches vulnerabilities across thousands of repos at some of the world’s largest financial institutions like Itau, where 70% of security vulnerabilities are automatically remediated by Devin. Every time programmers get more leverage, doomers predict the end of software engineering. Compilers were supposed to shrink the profession. So was open source. So was the cloud. Instead, each leap made software cheaper to build, and demand for software, and engineers, exploded. It keeps happening because, as Milton Friedman observed, human wants and needs are infinite, so economic demand is infinite, and job growth can continue forever (see [The Techno-Optimist Manifesto](https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/)). Technology is how we unlock that demand. Technology gives us leverage, lowers the cost to produce, and makes previously uneconomical use cases economical. For software, Devin provides that leverage. It is tempting to think of this as just another application of AI - one vertical among many. But if software continues to eat the world, the automation of software itself accelerates every industry. This future is core to how we at a16z see the world. We have always believed that software expands markets, that technical founders with seemingly unreasonable ambition create the future, and that small teams armed with powerful tools can change entire industries. Cognition is a powerful expression of those beliefs: a deeply technical company taking on an enormous problem, moving at extraordinary speed, and building for a market whose ultimate size is difficult to comprehend. Our conviction in Cognition comes from personally knowing Scott for over seven years. We first backed him at Lunchclub, where he and his team built a system for bringing people together and created relationships that have lasted through the years since. Scott is one of the most accomplished competitive programmers of his generation: a three-time gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics and a world champion at 17. But after working with him for many years, we know that his technical brilliance is only part of what makes him exceptional. Scott has an unusual combination of speed, judgment, competitiveness, and leadership. He sees important technical shifts early. He holds himself and everyone around him to an extraordinarily high standard. He cares deeply about his customers, recruits exceptional people, and has built a culture that moves with the urgency of the opportunity. One of Cognition’s values is “every second counts.” They mean it. An infinite market demands infinite ambition. Scott’s ambition and vision match the scale of the market and we are proud to back him for the second time. Scott, Steven, Walden, Russell and the entire Cognition team are working toward a world in which anyone can turn an idea into software. I ended my 2011 essay with one line: “I know where I’m putting my money.” Fifteen years later, I still do. *This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, this content is not investment advice, nor is it intended for use by any investors or prospective investors in any a16z funds. This newsletter may link to other websites or contain other information obtained from third-party sources - a16z has not independently verified nor makes any representations about the current or enduring accuracy of such information. If this content includes third-party advertisements, a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content or related companies contained therein. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z; visit [https://a16z.com/investment-list/](https://a16z.com/investment-list/) for a full list of investments. Other important information can be found at [a16z.com/disclosures](http://a16z.com/disclosures). You’re receiving this newsletter since you opted in earlier; if you would like to opt out of future newsletters you may unsubscribe immediately.*