Ashton Kutcher is departing from Sound Ventures — the venture firm he co-established with Guy Oseary over a decade ago — to launch a distinct VC fund, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The actor and investor is co-founding the new firm with Morgan Beller, who was recently a general partner at the seed-stage VC firm NFX and previously co-directed the cryptocurrency initiative Libra at Meta. Beller also held a position as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz for nearly three years.

TechCrunch had previously learned that Kutcher was getting ready to part ways; the WSJ’s article confirms this and provides additional insights about his plans with Beller. The name of the new venture has not yet been disclosed.

Kutcher’s departure does not seem to indicate any issues at Sound Ventures — typically, investors choose to leave firms that are not performing well, but this scenario is different. The firm, which has invested in companies like Brex and Gusto, was also an early backer of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs.

The separation is significant as it reflects the emerging direction of AI investment: Sound has established its reputation through targeted, high-confidence investments in leading AI laboratories, whereas Kutcher’s new fund seems to be looking at the foundational layers beneath these firms — the infrastructure and energy that support them.

“He and his fund consistently rank among [my] lists of top unicorn investors. An intriguing case!” wrote Stanford finance professor Ilya Strebulaev, who monitors high-performing venture capitalists, on X.

The actor has a long-standing relationship with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, dating back to when Altman launched Loopt — years prior to the debut of the ChatGPT creator.

Kutcher’s exit was partly attributed to differing opinions on which stages of startups to invest in, with Sound favoring support for more established companies rather than very early-stage ventures, according to the WSJ.

Kutcher and Beller are targeting early-stage investments in AI infrastructure, energy, and deep tech startups — companies focused on significant scientific and engineering advancements rather than just software.

Although leaving Sound Ventures, Kutcher will maintain his role as an adviser to the firm. In the meantime, Oseary and Sound general partner Effie Epstein will provide guidance to Kutcher and Beller’s new venture.