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 well-liked 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 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 Collection A funding in Cerebras Programs in 2016 paved the way in which 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 worth of $185 per share, in accordance with Eclipse.

For Susan, the windfall from Cerebras is just the start of reaping large rewards from a longstanding perception that as a result of 85% of worldwide GDP is tied to the bodily world, investing in firms 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 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 folks perceive that the true moat in software program is gone. You possibly can vibe code just about no matter you need,” he stated.

Susan echoed public market sentiment that earlier this yr 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’t 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.

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

Eclipse’s portfolio firms spanning sectors like robotics, power and protection, raised almost $15 billion from outdoors backers final yr, 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 report: in its first eight years, its portfolio firms raised lower than $4 billion in whole.

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 large late-stage offers this yr, the haul consists of $1.2 billion for Wayve, $650 million for True Anomaly, $270 million for Bedrock Robotics, and $200 million for Oxide Pc. What’s extra, Eclipse was the Collection A investor for all 4 firms.

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 information facilities, or by way of AI’s energy to lastly make robotics viable. Nevertheless, Susan argues that there are different highly effective tailwinds driving the momentum.

Apart from know-how — on this case, AI — what’s necessary for this market to thrive is capital, buyer demand, expertise, and coverage. Susan implies that together with buyers and engineers transferring away from SaaS to sectors like robotics, semiconductors, area, and mining, the U.S. authorities can also be encouraging these industries by way of subsidies and favorable regulation.

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