Jack Hidary

AI isn't just powering software. BrightAI just raised $51 million to automate inspection and other hardware-based AI capabilities. As Alexa von Tobel, co-founder of Inspired Capital put it: “So many people are so focused on the future of digital AI, but we’re excited about this new layer of AI: the physical world AI.” We are in the early innings of a series of AI-fueled innovations! https://lnkd.in/enhmafvH

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It takes a village - of the worlds most advanced companies - in order to build a quantum computer. It's impossible to build a commercial scale machine without scalable cryogenics. That's one of the reasons why approaches like ion traps and neutral atoms have attracted so much attention and capital: their qubits operate at room temperature. At Silicon Quantum Computing we have a trade off: ultimate level manufacturability using silicon as our qubit substrate and its trade-off being significant cooling requirements. We need excellence in all parts of the stack and it's why we have multiple Bluefors XLDs in the labs.

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In order to reach its full potential, Quantum needs to move out of the lab and into the hands of less elite operators, at volumes of scale, with the ability to operate in less controlled environments. And the only way that will happen is if the supply chain steps it up so it can meet the demand. Hardware breakthroughs will mean little if the component suppliers cannot match the pace of innovation. While the ability of Quantum Computers to break RSA-2048 may still be many years away, the quantum industry as a whole continues to enjoy remarkable advances now. However, it will not get to any meaningful commercial scale unless the quantum supply chain ups its game to support the growth. Citations and mentions: IonQ, Karl Tillman, IBM Quantum, Google, Hyperion, QED-C®, Carl Williams, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), James Kushmerick, Maybell Quantum, Vescent, Quantum Strategy Institute, Brian Lenahan, Petra Soderling, Matt Swayne, The Quantum Insider https://lnkd.in/gcTzgqhF

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I’ve been working on the theory of why small, shippable factories are the perfect inversion to the centralized prefab factory model. It all collapsed into one line of math (credit to Gilles Retsin): Factory Efficiency = Usage × (Throughput × Product Value ) / ( CapEx + Deployment OpEx) The idea is that the closer you can drive Usage to 100 % while keeping the denominator tiny, the faster the flywheel spins.  A shippable microfactory tackles this by primarily focusing on a high Usage factor. Because the microfactory can be packed up afterwards and reused, its CapEx gets amortized over multiple projects, effectively raising its overall Usage across the year. If one project alone doesn’t fully occupy the factory, it can simply roll over to another job to maintain high Usage. Its CapEx is often an order of magnitude lower than a centralized factory (< $1M vs. $10-50M min), so the breakeven throughput is more achievable on a small pipeline of work. The real breakthrough here is portability. There is near-zero stranded capital and almost no idle time. To flesh this theory out, I wrote 3000 words on the topic for Brad Hargreaves and Thesis Driven. The article breaks down: - why “fixed factories, shipped goods” is being inverted to shipped factories, fixed goods - what a sub‑$1 M robotic cell does to CapEx per home versus a £45 M off‑site plant - early production/cost data on a shippable microfactory from Mollie Claypool, Gilles Retsin, Sam Baker and the Automated Architecture (AUAR) team - the hybrid reality of robots tackling the heavy structural components and human crews assembling faster and cheaper - technical constraints to pull this model off and future considerations on the optimal business model (own vs. rent) Major shoutout to Gilles Retsin for helping me pull this together. https://lnkd.in/eRTnbZPa

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Next Realm AI has launched advisory services to help quantum startups and public companies access: 🔹 Investment Capital 🤝 Strategic Partnerships / M&A 🌐 Blockchain Integration for Quantum Services 📈 IPO Listings Follow us also at QuantumMeow

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VERSES is playing a key role in the collaboration and growth of Active Inference researchers and practitioners around the world.

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Homerun licenses Long Duration Energy Storage Tech from the US Dept of Energy / NREL. A less than competitve LDES is currently valued at US$500 million...

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In hard-tech, the biggest moat isn’t a patent—it’s people! At Conduit, we quietly built one of the world’s most unique communities: a global network of over 200 engineers, operators, designers, supply chain veterans, and contract manufacturers—the Conduit Fellows. These are the men and women who have built, shipped, scaled the hardware and physical tech the world runs on. They’re the invisible force behind the devices in your hands, the sensors in your cars, and the machines on factory floors from Ohio to Shenzhen. They bring: 🛠 Decades of deep execution experience across product and manufacturing. 🌏 Access to global supply chains—from Tier 1 fabs in Taiwan to family-run suppliers in rural Europe. 🤝 Relationships forged in the real world, not just on pitch decks. This is Conduit’s edge (and our long term commitment). We don’t just aim to invest in physical technology. We build it. We de-risk it. We scale it. And we do it alongside the Fellows—those who’ve learned from the scars of failed pilots, lived through the pain of missed yield targets, and know what it takes to go from prototype to P&L. The future of physical AI, robotics, sensory systems, climate, and health-tech isn’t built in isolation. It’s built in community. That’s why we believe human capital is the most important infrastructure in hard-tech. If you’re building and investing the next generation of physical technology and want to be surrounded and supported by the best network in the world for execution—let’s talk. #HardTech #VentureCapital #ConduitVentureLabs #Hardware #Founders #EngineeringExcellence #ConduitFellows #SupplyChain #PhysicalAI #AIForTheRealWorld #PhysicalIntelligence #hardware (Meet some of our community > https://lnkd.in/ge6FK_cx)

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It’s an incredible time for deep-tech innovation. Across multiple domains, the pace of innovation has accelerated 22% YOY. The number of patent filings has reached record levels and AI has shrunk the “idea-to-action” timeframe by 30%. This is combined with record levels of capital ready to be deployed. But despite all of this, many deep-tech founders are experiencing a funding wall between seed and series B. This isn’t due to a gap in their technology, it’s due to a gap in the understanding they’re able to communicate to strategic partners and investors. Many deep-tech innovations are so complex and transformative, that they’re very difficult to understand. The more transformative a technology is, the wider that gap becomes. The answer isn’t better explanation, founders also need to inspire stakeholders with a tangible and powerful vision for the future and engage them intellectually and emotionally so that they’re inspired and convicted to partner. So that’s why I’m very excited to share a brand new service from Demos; The Demos Studio Brand Accelerator. It’s a program that was developed at the request of founders to help them close that meaning gap and clear the funding wall. It takes 20 years of experience from working with and on the best brands in the world and puts it in the hands of founders for only $25K in cash plus $50K in equity. We’ve already been working with several founders in this way and I’m really happy to be able to share it more broadly. If you’re a deep-tech founder with a transformative innovation that should be getting more attention, or an investor whose deep-tech portco has untapped potential, I’d love to hear from you. 

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Micro, Meso, and Macro: How Start-ups Are Shaped Start-ups do not operate in isolation. Their formation, growth, and survival are shaped by influences operating at three levels: micro, meso, and macro. Understanding how these layers interact is central to explaining why some ecosystems mature coherently while others remain active but fragile. The micro level sits closest to the venture. It includes founders, teams, internal governance, early customers, product discipline, and execution capability. These factors directly affect how decisions are made and how quickly learning occurs. Evidence across entrepreneurship research shows that micro-level strength matters, but it functions within constraints it does not control, such as regulation, market access, and capital structure. The macro level defines those constraints. Regulation, capital markets, labour mobility, infrastructure, education systems, and national development strategies shape what types of ventures can realistically form, scale, and exit. Publicly available ecosystem research indicates that consistent policy signals, regulatory clarity, and credible exit pathways are associated with more durable entrepreneurial activity, independent of individual founder talent. Between these two sits the meso layer, which acts as the system’s connective tissue. Accelerators, incubators, venture studios, universities, angel networks, corporate innovation units, and ecosystem builders translate macro intent into micro-level action. This layer influences selection, norms, and narratives. Its impact is indirect and therefore harder to measure, and public data on its effectiveness remains limited. Ecosystem reports and commentary suggest that misalignment most often appears at the meso level. When early-stage logic is applied indiscriminately across all phases of venture development, later-stage needs such as governance maturity, institutional readiness, and exit infrastructure can remain underdeveloped. Activity increases, but structural depth does not always follow. Takeaways Micro capability, meso translation, and macro structure are interdependent, not interchangeable. Most ecosystem distortion emerges when the meso layer exceeds or confuses its role. NSR is reflected when each layer acts within its remit and reinforces, rather than replaces, the others. https://lnkd.in/eGfBW_KN (Papi & Laado) SVC - Misk Foundation - Ministry of Economy and Planning - MEPsaudi -theGarage - Startup Studio National Technology Development Program - Public Investment Fund (PIF) #Venturecapital - KAUST Core Labs - National Development Fund (NDF)

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Defense and climate adaptation and resilience overlap more than you think. This graphic from BloombergNEF is about the clearest articulation of the connection between physical risks and second order impacts like state collapse and various economic stressors. Not things we want to think about, but the consequence of slower progress on climate mitigation is that all of these things become more likely, more quickly. https://lnkd.in/gCdDijXX

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💥 Excited to finally unveil another BOOOM💥-Portfolio Company out of stealth with Ankar AI 📈 Innovation doesn’t wait — but the patenting process still does. In 2023, over 3.5M patent applications were filed globally, and the number keeps rising. Yet, the process of securing IP remains painfully slow, expensive, and inaccessible to most teams building frontier tech. ⚡ That’s where Ankar comes in Founded by Palantir Technologies and Helsing alumni Tamar and Wiem, Ankar is reinventing how intellectual property is protected — using AI to compress the months-long patenting process into days. 🛠️ Their platform covers the full patent lifecycle: from technical memo generation and novelty checks against global patent data, to application drafting and infringement detection — already in use by Fortune500 giants and R&D teams in Europe, the US, and China. 💥 It's been one of those rare investor-founder calls in early 2024: falling in love with Tamar, Wiem and how they operate within the first 5 minutes: lightning fast, product-obsessed, with a deep understanding of real customer pain. What they’ve built in under 12 months is mind-blowing — a full-stack AI engine already loved by top-tier innovators in automotive, chemicals, pharma, cosmetics and beyond. Excited to work on this amazing project with a group of good friends such as Bastian & Hannah at Index Ventures, Gloria at Puzzle Ventures, Nicolas at Motier Ventures and daphni among others to help make patents fast, accessible, and scalable — for inventors everywhere. 💥 See press coverage in the comments 💥 #BOOOM Julius Koehler Nicolaus Schefenacker David Nothacker Dr. Christian Gahr

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Episode 13 of the Easy VC Brief focused on one topic of deep tech - bio manufacturing. Talking about Mothership Materials and their work on sustainable feedstocks.🌿 It’s a bit shorter today but more focused. In a world conflicted and the 24 hour news cycle locked on the Iran War, I try to keep my mind focused on entrepreneurs who are trying to make the world better and there continues to be a big opportunity in bio manufacturing. #keepbuilding

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Great to see Graphitic Energy featured in this insightful Utility Dive article by Melanie Davidson on rethinking California's hydrogen strategy. #greenmolecules

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The Process is the Product - a conversation on scaling new technologies with Raffi Garabedian, CEO of Electric Hydrogen as they bring up their first 100MW electrolyzer facility in TX. Raffi helped drive one of the most dramatic cost reductions in energy history, taking thin-film solar from niche curiosity to global commodity - now he brings that knowledge to reindustrialization the US! NextGen Industry Group David Eaglesham Derek Warnick https://lnkd.in/gZdAJumD

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A new AI model called MatterGen is revolutionizing materials science by creating tailored materials for future technologies. This breakthrough could accelerate the development of new materials for various applications, including batteries, fuel cells, and more. Here's what you need to know: ~ AI-Driven Material Discovery: MatterGen uses a diffusion model trained on a vast database of materials to generate new materials based on specific requirements and desired properties. ~ Efficiency and Accuracy: This approach is more efficient than traditional material search methods and has already led to the creation of a new material, TaCr2O6, with high compressive strength. ~ Open Source Innovation: MatterGen is available to everyone under an MIT license, fostering collaboration and accelerating the development of new materials for various applications. ReX Capital LLC is excited about the potential of AI to drive innovation in materials science. We believe that advancements like MatterGen can unlock the development of new materials that will enable the next generation of technologies and contribute to a more sustainable and prosperous future. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gFAS2e7Y

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The Resurgence of Nuclear Startups: Potential vs. Challenges Small modular reactor (SMR) startups are gaining traction, promising to revolutionize energy production through mass manufacturing and cost reduction. However, the journey ahead is fraught with regulatory, technological, and market challenges that these innovators must navigate effectively. At ElevenX Capital, we recognize that while the potential is significant, a comprehensive strategy addressing these complexities is essential for success. Are investors ready to support this evolving frontier? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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You can have groundbreaking science, elegant engineering, and even early customer interest. But without this one thing, you don't have an investable business. After two decades running IP strategy projects and now leading UC Berkeley's Deep Tech Innovation Lab while building the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator, I've watched countless brilliant technologies die in the valley between breakthrough and business. The problem isn't what most technical founders think it is. It's not about having better tech. It's not about getting more funding. It's not even about finding product-market fit. The fatal flaw shows up much earlier—and it's almost always the same mistake. In my latest piece, I answer questions from a Taiwanese entrepreneur about what really separates deep tech ventures that scale from those that stall. Including one provocative suggestion for Asian ecosystems that has nothing to do with technology. Read the full conversation, linked below. #DeepTech #Innovation #Startups #IntellectualProperty #VentureCapital

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