For Eclipse, Cerebras’ $2.5B success is just the beginning of realizing its global vision.

When Lior Susan started Eclipse Ventures In 2015, the strong idea of ​​digitizing the physical world was not very popular in Silicon Valley.

“It was the era of enterprise software and SaaS, and it was lonely the first few years,” Susan said on stage at the recent StrictlyVC event in San Francisco.

More than a decade later, Eclipse finds itself at the center of the global tech scene. The company’s $6.5 million Series A investment in Cerebras Systems in 2016 led to a return of $2.5 billion as the semiconductor company revealed this week. The company invested $147 million in Cerebras over time, a bet that returned 17 times Cerebras. IPO price $185 per session, according to Eclipse.

For Susan, the windfall from Cerebras is just the beginning of reaping great rewards from a long-held belief that because 85% of the world’s GDP is linked to the environment, investing in companies beyond good programs can be very profitable.

Public markets and startups seem to be realizing the importance of global technology here, too. Susan noted that shares of TSMC and Micron have recently risen sharply, as a growing group of elite startups are eager to build startups along the hardware and software spectrum.

“I think people will understand that the real moat in programming is over. You can vibe code pretty much anything you want,” he said.

Susan echoed the public market sentiment that earlier this year sent many SaaS stocks tumbling on the belief that businesses could use Anthropic’s Claude Code or the latest OpenAI models to build their own popular software tools instead.

“What you can’t do with the ‘vibe code’ is make the cookware, because you need machines and silicon, and it needs clean rooms, and a lot of other things,” Susan said.

When it comes to technology that impacts the world, it’s not just semiconductors that attract the attention of investors and startups.

Eclipse companies in sectors such as robotics, energy and security, raised about $15 billion from foreign sponsors last year, and the late rise reached $4.5 billion in Q1 2026 alone, Susan said. That investor enthusiasm is in stark contrast to the company’s history: in its first eight years, its companies raised less than $4 billion.

Indeed, Eclipse’s recent moves show a track record that any company would envy. Driven by the big races later this year, drag includes $1.2 billion for Wave$650 million for True Anomaly, $270 million for Bedrock Robotics, and $200 million for Oxide Computer. Additionally, Eclipse was a Series A investor in all four companies.

At first glance, it may seem that the world’s technology business interest is driven by AI, whether it is through the creation of products such as chips and data centers, or through the power of AI to eventually make robotics work. However, Susan argues that there are other powerful forces driving the movement.

Apart from technology – in this case, AI – what is important for this market to succeed is money, customer demand, talent, and principles. Susan points out that along with investors and engineers moving away from SaaS to areas such as robotics, semiconductors, space, and mining, the US government is also encouraging these industries through subsidies and better laws.

“This is the first time I believe in all of America, from Henry Ford and Carnegie, these five groups are coming together,” Susan said. “For builders like us, this is a great time to build this industry.”