The A&E investment, which was first reported by The Financial Times, could make it less dependent on companies like Intel and AT&T and allow it to create more of its own original content. In particular, Mr. Smith has set his sights on traditional television. His company already produces a 30-minute weekly program for HBO — “News from the edge,” is the tagline — but he’d like to eventually have a 24-hour Vice network.

Image Shane Smith is the chief executive of Vice Media. Credit... Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Partnering with A&E will give Vice access to an array of television outlets for its programming. A&E operates a number of cable networks, including A&E, Lifetime and the History Channel. Down the road, A&E could potentially provide Vice with its own cable channel.

The investment will also give Vice an infusion of cash to develop shows for mobile, the web and traditional TV, to move content between those platforms, and to acquire new media assets. “It’s a war chest,” Mr. Smith said.

A&E is not the first traditional media company to make a big investment in Vice. Last year, the company sold a 5 percent stake to 21st Century Fox for $70 million.

In recent months, others had also engaged in serious talks with Vice, which is based in a converted warehouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Most prominently, Time Warner discussed buying a stake as large as 40 percent in the company, a deal that could have given Vice access to the cable channel HLN.

But the negotiations stalled when the two companies were unable to agree on how much control Vice would have over HLN and, most significantly, how much money Vice was worth. Time Warner put the company’s value at a little more than $1.5 billion; Vice insisted that its valuation was closer to $2.5 billion.

A&E has apparently agreed. Though an enormous leap from where Vice was valued just last year, $2.5 billion remains just a drop in the bucket compared with what some companies in Silicon Valley have been fetching lately.