Meet Gagan Biyan, Udemy co-founder building Silicon Valley's no-degree AI college

Indian-origin entrepreneur Gagan Biyani, co-founder of Udemy, is leading Andreessen Horowitz's new Horowitz Andreessen Academy. The no-degree AI academy will teach young builders through projects, AI and industry exposure, with tech leaders including Sam Altman, Satya Nadella and Jensen Huang expected as guest speakers. Its first year will be tuition-free.Indian-origin entrepreneur Gagan Biyani, co-founder of Udemy, is leading Andreessen Horowitz’s new Horowitz Andreessen Academy. (Photo: LinkedIn/gaganbiyani)What if your next college application did not ask for your grades, did not promise a degree and instead asked one thing: What do you want to build?That is the experiment Indian-origin entrepreneur Gagan Biyani is now helping Silicon Valley run.Biyani is the CEO and co-founder of the newly launched Horowitz Andreessen Academy, an alternative education venture backed by Andreessen Horowitz, the powerful Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.The academy has raised $42 million and is designed for ambitious young people coming out of high school or early in college. Its first cohort of about 50 students will begin in September 2027 with a one-year programme that is tuition-free. It will not award a degree or transferable college credits. Students will instead work on projects, spend time with technology companies and learn from prominent founders and industry leaders. The academy says there will be no traditional grades, tests or homework.FROM UDEMY TO SILICON VALLEY’S NEW SCHOOLBiyani is no stranger to rethinking education. He co-founded Udemy with Eren Bali and Oktay Caglar, helping build an online learning platform that eventually became a major global education company. Udemy's own history confirms Biyani as one of its three co-founders.He later co-founded Maven, a platform for cohort-based learning, and has built companies around education, technology and consumer research.Now, his latest project is taking the idea much further: what happens when learning is built around doing rather than collecting credentials?Biyani has described the academy as a place for "unusually ambitious young builders", with the aim of giving them the skills, network and real-world experience needed in an economy being reshaped by AI.SAM ALTMAN, SATYA NADELLA AND JENSEN HUANGThe guest list is one of the academy's biggest draws.Technology leaders including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are among the names associated with guest sessions, alongside other prominent technology and startup figures.But Biyani says the celebrities are not supposed to be the course itself.The focus is on students pursuing their own projects, learning from mentors and gaining exposure to the companies shaping AI and technology.The academy has partnerships involving companies including Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI and Palantir.THE $90,000 QUESTIONThe first year may be free, but the experiment is not designed to remain that way.The academy plans to seek regulatory approval for a two-year programme beginning in 2028. If approved, Biyani has said tuition could be $60,000 to $90,000 a year, putting it in the range of elite private universities.For now, students in the inaugural programme will also receive $50,000 in computing credits and a $5,000 travel and research budget.There is one major difference from a conventional college: students could complete the programme without ever receiving a degree.And that may be the most interesting part of Biyani's experiment. In an age where AI is changing what employers expect from graduates, he is betting that for some young people, what they can build may become as important as the university name on their CV.- Ends