Eclipse Closes $1.3B Fund to Back Physical AI Startups Across Manufacturing, Defense, and Robotics

VC Eclipse has a new $1.3B to back -- and build -- 'physical AI' startups | TechCrunch

It takes just a skim of Eclipse's recent investments to see where this venture firm's interests lie -- and where it is headed. The Palo Alto-based VC, which saw its median deal size explode over the past several years, has poured an increasing amount of money into the "physical world." Its deals include electric boat developer Arc , buzzy battery recycling and material firm Redwood Materials, self-driving construction vehicle startup Bedrock Robotics, autonomous vehicle tech company Wayve, and industrial robotics lab Mind Robotics. With $1.3 billion in fresh capital -- which is split between a $591 million early stage, incubation fund and one more oriented towards growth startups -- Eclipse is zeroing in on what partner Jiten Behl describes as the next big technological era. "Over the last two decades, we've seen multiple waves of innovation," Behl said, listing the internet, mobile cloud, and social media eras. "This is the first time where stuff is going to move from our screens into the physical world; we're going to see advanced levels of intelligence, along with actual actions, in terms of, solving problems in the real, physical world." AI and the physical world have collided; the ubiquity of the term physical AI is just one signal. Behl said this era is being propelled by a confluence of talent, technological advancements, demand, and policy. And, of course, capital. "We have a nice war chest to go and make a serious dent in the market and support the companies in the right way across the life cycle," he said. Eclipse isn't breaking new ground by investing in physical AI. It is after all, the next shiny new thing to invest in. How Eclipse picks startups is worth noting. The VC is looking to invest across all physical sectors, including transportation, energy, infrastructure, compute, and defense. The interesting part is, as Behl described it, is a strategy to build a web, or ecosystem of startups in overlapping fields that will likely become partners as they scale. "Scale is so important, and if you can put it together in a way where companies partner early on to build scale, to build proof points, and it just then enables them to go after the next set of demand," Behl said, explaining that portfolio companies will partner with each other directly, but hopefully, also work with each other's partners. In some cases, those startups will be incubated within the confines of Eclipse. Behl said Eclipse plans to build companies from this new fund. And while he wouldn't give too many hints, he did confirm that process has already started. "We're definitely working on a couple of really cool ideas," he said, noting that Eclipse is particularly interested in startups that work across enterprises. "The next insight is like, how do you connect these sectors? How do you build scale across sectors? And how do you use the data across sectors to build that moat?" he posed, adding data would be used to train smarter AI models to benefit a broader group. "That's sort of the general thesis that we've been working on."

Cerebras Backer Eclipse Raises $1.3 Billion for Robotics, AI Infrastructure

Venture capital firm Eclipse has raised $1.3 billion to invest in startups working in physical industries such as artificial intelligence infrastructure, manufacturing and defense. Eclipse, an early backer of Nvidia Corp. rival Cerebras Systems Inc., disclosed the fundraising in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The total includes $720 million for investments in early-stage startups and $591 million for later-stage deals. Founded in 2015, Eclipse focuses on companies building technologies for the physical world. Its investments include self-driving software startup Wayve -- Eclipse co-led its Series D fundraising in February -- and $6 billion battery supply chain company Redwood Materials Inc. Eclipse founder Lior Susan also sits on the board of AI chipmaker Cerebras, which is expected to go public as soon as April. The latest $1.3 billion haul is the firm's largest to date, nudging out the $1.23 billion in new funds it raised in 2023. In a statement, Eclipse said that the firm has spent the past 11 years building an ecosystem of startups focused on national strength, sovereignty and security. "Companies in physical industries are built differently," it said. "We believed that, with the right partners, a new generation of builders could take the baton from the last wave of industrial innovators -- and go even farther." Eclipse's cash influx comes as investors pour money into so-called hard tech companies, driven by recent innovations in artificial intelligence technologies and geopolitical pressures. One such pressure, spurred by President Donald Trump's emphasis on international tariffs, has led to new efforts to revive US manufacturing. This year, Eclipse co-led a $220 million funding round for American manufacturing startup VulcanForms. Other companies that have recently attracted VC attention for technology beyond software include nuclear energy upstart Valar Atomics, which just hit a $2 billion valuation, and AI-for-robotics startup Physical Intelligence, which has been in talks for an $11 billion value. Meanwhile, defense tech company Anduril Industries Inc. has been in discussions with investors this year to raise money at a valuation of more than $60 billion.