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 notably standard in Silicon Valley.

“It was the period of enterprise software program and SaaS, and it felt pretty lonely the primary couple of years,” Susan mentioned on stage at a latest 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 wager that generated a 17-fold return on the IPO value of $185 per share, in keeping with Eclipse.

For Susan, the windfall from Cerebras is barely the start of reaping large 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 could possibly 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 feel individuals perceive that the actual moat in software program is gone. You’ll be able to vibe code just about no matter you need,” he mentioned.

Susan echoed public market sentiment that earlier this 12 months despatched many SaaS shares tumbling on the assumption that enterprises could 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, and so they want clear rooms, and a bunch of different issues,” Susan mentioned.

With regards to the tech that touches the bodily world, it’s not simply semiconductors which are out of the blue catching the eye of buyers and founders.

Eclipse’s portfolio corporations spanning sectors like robotics, power 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 mentioned. That investor pleasure stands in stark distinction to the agency’s early observe report: in its first eight years, its portfolio corporations raised lower than $4 billion in complete.

Certainly, the latest follow-on rounds throughout Eclipse’s portfolio present a observe report that any enterprise agency would envy. Pushed by a string of huge late-stage offers this 12 months, the haul consists of $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 might 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.

In addition to know-how — on this case, AI — what’s necessary 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 mentioned. “For builders like us, that is the perfect time to construct these corporations.”