For Eclipse, the $2.5B Cerebras win is simply the beginning of realizing its physical-world thesis

When Lior Susan began Eclipse Ventures in 2015, the agency’s thesis of digitizing the bodily world wasn’t significantly in style in Silicon Valley.

“It was the period of enterprise software program and SaaS, and it felt pretty lonely the primary couple of years,” Susan stated on stage at a current StrictlyVC occasion in San Francisco.

Greater than a decade later, Eclipse finds itself on the heart of the tech world’s motion. The agency’s $6.5 million Sequence A funding in Cerebras Programs in 2016 paved the best way for a complete return of $2.5 billion when the semiconductor firm went public this week. The agency invested a complete of $147 million in Cerebras over time, a guess that generated a 17-fold return on the IPO price of $185 per share, in keeping with Eclipse.

For Susan, the windfall from Cerebras is simply the start of reaping massive rewards from a longstanding perception that as a result of 85% of world GDP is tied to the bodily world, investing in corporations past pure software program may very well be immensely profitable.

Public markets and startup founders appear to be recognizing the worth of physical-world tech now, too. Susan famous that shares of TSMC and Micron just lately hit all-time highs, whereas a rising cohort of elite founders are keen to construct startups on the intersection of {hardware} and software program.

“I believe folks perceive that the true moat in software program is gone. You may vibe code just about no matter you need,” he stated.

Susan echoed public market sentiment that earlier this 12 months despatched many SaaS shares tumbling on the idea that enterprises might use Anthropic’s Claude Code or OpenAI’s newest fashions to create their very own bespoke software program instruments as a substitute.

“What you can not do with ‘vibe code’ is manufacture wafers, since you want machines and silicon, they usually want clear rooms, and a bunch of different issues,” Susan stated.

In relation to the tech that touches the bodily world, it’s not simply semiconductors which can be all of a sudden catching the eye of buyers and founders.

Eclipse’s portfolio corporations spanning sectors like robotics, vitality and protection, raised almost $15 billion from outdoors backers final 12 months, and that late-stage momentum reached $4.5 billion in Q1 2026 alone, Susan stated. That investor pleasure stands in stark distinction to the agency’s early observe document: in its first eight years, its portfolio corporations raised lower than $4 billion in complete.

Certainly, the current follow-on rounds throughout Eclipse’s portfolio present a observe document that any enterprise agency would envy. Pushed by a string of large late-stage offers this 12 months, the haul contains $1.2 billion for Wayve, $650 million for True Anomaly, $270 million for Bedrock Robotics, and $200 million for Oxide Laptop. What’s extra, Eclipse was the Sequence A investor for all 4 corporations.

At first look, it could appear that investor enthusiasm for physical-world tech is pushed purely by AI, whether or not as an infrastructure enter like chips and knowledge facilities, or by means of AI’s energy to lastly make robotics viable. Nonetheless, Susan argues that there are different highly effective tailwinds driving the momentum.

Moreover expertise — on this case, AI — what’s essential for this market to thrive is capital, buyer demand, expertise, and coverage. Susan signifies that together with buyers and engineers shifting away from SaaS to sectors like robotics, semiconductors, area, and mining, the U.S. authorities can also be encouraging these industries by means of subsidies and favorable regulation.

“That is the primary time I imagine in America ever, from Henry Ford and Carnegie, these 5 forces are aligned,” Susan stated. “For builders like us, that is the most effective time to construct these corporations.”