For Eclipse, the $2.5B Cerebras win is just the start of realizing its physical-world thesis - BERITAJA

When Lior Susan started Eclipse Ventures successful 2015, the firm’s thesis of digitizing the beingness world wasn’t peculiarly celebrated successful Silicon Valley.

“It was the era of endeavor package and SaaS, and it felt reasonably lonely the first mates of years,” Susan said connected shape astatine a caller StrictlyVC arena successful San Francisco.

More than a decade later, Eclipse finds itself astatine the halfway of the tech world’s action. The firm’s $6.5 cardinal Series A finance successful Cerebras Systems successful 2016 paved the measurement for a full return of $2.5 cardinal erstwhile the semiconductor institution went nationalist this week. The patient invested a full of $147 cardinal successful Cerebras complete time, a stake that generated a 17-fold return astatine the IPO value of $185 per share, according to Eclipse.

For Susan, the windfall from Cerebras is only the opening of reaping large rewards from a longstanding belief that because 85% of world GDP is tied to the beingness world, investing successful companies beyond axenic package could beryllium immensely lucrative.

Public markets and startup founders look to beryllium recognizing the worth of physical-world tech now, too. Susan noted that shares of TSMC and Micron precocious deed all-time highs, while a increasing cohort of elite founders are eager to build startups astatine the intersection of hardware and software.

“I deliberation group understand that the existent moat successful package is gone. You could vibe codification beautiful overmuch immoderate you want,” he said.

Susan echoed nationalist marketplace sentiment that earlier this twelvemonth sent galore SaaS stocks tumbling connected the belief that enterprises whitethorn usage Anthropic’s Claude Code aliases OpenAI’s latest models to create their ain bespoke package devices instead.

“What you cannot do pinch ‘vibe code’ is manufacture wafers, because you request machines and silicon, and they request cleanable rooms, and a bunch of different things,” Susan said.

When it comes to the tech that touches the beingness world, it’s not conscionable semiconductors that are abruptly catching the attraction of investors and founders.

Eclipse’s portfolio companies spanning sectors for illustration robotics, power and defense, raised about $15 cardinal from extracurricular backers past year, and that late-stage momentum reached $4.5 cardinal successful Q1 2026 alone, Susan said. That investor excitement stands successful stark opposition to the firm's early way record: successful its first 8 years, its portfolio companies raised little than $4 cardinal successful total.

Indeed, the caller follow-on rounds crossed Eclipse’s portfolio show a way grounds that immoderate task patient would envy. Driven by a drawstring of monolithic late-stage deals this year, the haul includes $1.2 cardinal for Wayve, $650 cardinal for True Anomaly, $270 cardinal for Bedrock Robotics, and $200 cardinal for Oxide Computer. What’s more, Eclipse was the Series A investor for each 4 companies.

At first glance, it whitethorn look that investor enthusiasm for physical-world tech is driven purely by AI, whether arsenic an infrastructure input for illustration chips and information centers, aliases done AI’s powerfulness to yet make robotics viable. However, Susan argues that location are different powerful tailwinds driving the momentum.

Besides exertion — successful this case, AI — what’s important for this marketplace to thrive is capital, customer demand, talent, and policy. Susan intends that on pinch investors and engineers moving distant from SaaS to sectors for illustration robotics, semiconductors, space, and mining, the U.S. authorities is besides encouraging these industries done subsidies and favorable regulation.

“This is the first clip I judge successful America ever, from Henry Ford and Carnegie, those 5 forces are aligned,” Susan said. “For builders for illustration us, this is the champion clip to build those companies.”