Capital Crowds Into Electrons for GPUs; Industrial Biomining and Methane-Cutting Ag Score New Series A; Battery Contamination Control and Open Humanoids Close B & more | Deep Tech Capital Movements 44

This week Deals Sector Allocation — Energy & Industrial/Robotics 8; Semis & Quantum 6; Ag/FoodTech 5; Bio 4; AI/Compute; Cyber/Defense 3; Materials 2; Mobility & Space/Aero 1

Welcome back to Deep Tech Capital Movements — A global read on where the money actually went in Deep Tech private markets.

Inside This Week’s Deep Tech Capital Movements:

Lite Edition

• This week at a glance

• Five Deals to Watch (why they matter)

• Capital Flows Snapshot

Full Edition

• Weekly analysis:

  • WEEK 46, 2025 - Stacks, shields, and soil carbon: sovereign AI compute, mission-ready security, and climate infrastructure that behaves like collateral

  • How Capital Actually Deployed This Week

  • Funds & Vehicles Check

  • Geography Check

  • Five Signals That Stood Out

• Full Tracking of 42 Deep Tech Startup Rounds

• Full Tracking of 5 Funds & Vehicles

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This week at a glance:

• 47 items tracked: 42 startup/deal events + 5 funds/vehicles.

• By sector (startups only): Energy (8) and Industrial & Robotics (8) led; Semis & Quantum (6); AgTech & Food Systems (5); Biotech & Health (4); AI & Data Infrastructure (4) and Cyber & Defense (3); Materials & Circular Economy (2); Mobility & Logistics (1); Space & Aero (1)

• By geography: USA (16) and Europe incl. UK (12) dominated; Asia–Pacific (5); Middle East / MENA (3); Canada (2); India (2); plus one global / cross-region quantum expansion program.

Five deals to Watch:

1. Skycore Semiconductors — €5M Seed (Denmark).
   Skycore Semiconductors raised €5 million in seed funding to commercialize high-density power ICs for 800V high-voltage DC architectures in next-generation AI data centers. The platform targets rack-level power distribution as AI loads move beyond 200 kW, aiming to deliver more efficient, compact conversion and ease copper and cooling constraints in hyperscale and edge facilities.
   Takeaway: Power electronics is steadily becoming as important as compute. Skycore is a focused bet on 800V HVDC as a core design choice inside future AI data centers, not an afterthought.

2. Voya Energy — $13M Seed (United States).
   Voya Energy emerged from stealth with a $13 million seed round to develop modular power systems based on recycled metal fuels that can be transported, stored, and converted into carbon-free electricity on demand. The company is initially targeting critical infrastructure, remote industry, and off-grid sites that value dispatchable power without dependence on pipelines or fragile grid interconnects.
   Takeaway: Dispatchable clean power is being reframed as a logistics and format problem. Voya treats energy as a solid, shippable fuel-plus-generator stack, which may resonate with resilience-sensitive customers.

3. Firmus Technologies — $327M Growth (Australia).
   Firmus Technologies secured $327 million to build a network of renewable-powered AI data centers across Australia, with plans for up to 1.6 GW of AI capacity by 2028. Backed by Nvidia, the company is using the capital for site acquisition, construction, and long-term clean power sourcing in regions such as Melbourne and Tasmania.
   Takeaway: AI compute is increasingly being financed like energy infrastructure. Firmus is positioning green, high-density AI campuses as long-lived, power-anchored assets rather than a conventional colo footprint.

4. Delvitech — $40M Series B (Switzerland).
   Delvitech raised $40 million in Series B funding to scale its AI-native automated optical inspection systems for electronics manufacturing. Its 3D platforms apply neural networks to detect defects on PCBs and complex assemblies and are now being expanded globally, including a manufacturing push in India for high-volume electronics lines.
   Takeaway: Electronics inspection is gradually shifting from rules-based vision to AI-native platforms. Delvitech’s value proposition is tighter yield and fewer false positives for large manufacturers, pushing it closer to core production infrastructure.

5. Endolith — $13.5M Seed (United States).
   Endolith secured $13.5 million in seed capital to deploy microbial biomining systems that extract copper and other critical minerals from low-grade ore and waste rock. The company combines adaptive laboratory evolution — training microbes to survive and process ore in harsh conditions — with AI-driven optimization of pH, temperature, and other variables for pilots at mine sites, starting in Arizona.
   Takeaway: Critical mineral supply is being approached as an optimization problem on existing assets, not only a new exploration effort. Endolith is treating tailings and low-grade deposits as potential additional reserves for defense, EV, and data-center supply chains.

Capital Flows Snapshot:

• Energy & Climate: Capital concentrated on deliverable, low-carbon power for AI and electrification. Investors backed renewable-aligned compute campuses, modular clean-energy units for data centers, metal-based fuels for off-grid loads, vertical PV towers, PV self-cleaning tech, and contamination control for battery lines. Electrified mobility and distributed EV charging were financed as grid-adjacent assets, not stand-alone products.

• AI & Data: Funding favored AI tied directly to revenue, reliability, and security. Rounds supported operational assistants for service businesses, real-time intelligence layers for agents, and observability stacks for robots and industrial systems. Security capital targeted continuous AI-driven penetration testing, while clinical-grade workflows attracted investment for compliant, real-time interpretation. The emphasis: measurable impact on utilization and risk.

• Defense, Autonomy & Security: Capital moved toward fast-growing threat surfaces. Major rounds went into counter-drone radar for critical sites, reusable hypersonic platforms using clean propulsion, and AI agents that emulate human attackers. Biosecurity infrastructure that stress-tests AI systems for misuse joined the same strategic category, reflecting a shift toward persistent monitoring and resilience.

• Biotech & Health: Investors backed programs with defined mechanisms, biomarkers, and manufacturing paths. Funding went to small-molecule modulation of secretory pathways, proteostasis restoration in neurodegeneration, and EEG-based neurodiagnostics built on large datasets. Additional activity targeted biological methane reduction in livestock and precision bioinsecticides. Discipline and clinical line-of-sight dominated.

• AgTech, Food Systems & Bioindustrial: Capital flowed to emissions-cutting biology, regenerative systems, and next-gen ingredients. Regenerative farming financed through soil-carbon credits, microbial feed additives, upcycled cocoa alternatives, and cultivated leather all raised money. Automation of controlled environments and targeted biological crop protection reinforced the view of agriculture as an engineered production system.

• Semis, Quantum & Advanced Materials: Funding expanded beyond GPUs into the power-and-memory stack. Investors backed efficient inference silicon, non-volatile DRAM-class memory, and high-voltage data-center power ICs. Quantum dollars focused on neutral-atom hardware, compact cryogenic subsystems, and enterprise-ready software layers. The priority: sovereign, power-efficient compute infrastructure.

• Industrial Automation & Robotics: Capital centered on uptime, quality, and resource access. Rounds supported AI-native electronics inspection, real-time 3D-printing defect detection, microbial extraction of metals from low-grade ore, and dust-capture solutions for battery lines. Robotics for land stabilization, controlled-environment agriculture, tactile sensing, and open humanoid stacks reflect a shift toward automating high-variance physical tasks.

• Grid, Markets & Distributed Infrastructure: Investment targeted grid flexibility and risk management. Virtual power plants aggregating distributed assets, short-term power-derivative exchanges, underground cable monitoring, and software-defined AC charging networks all closed rounds. Thesis: increase visibility, tradability, and reliability of existing grid assets rather than rely solely on new transmission.

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WEEK 46, 2025

Stacks, shields, and soil carbon: sovereign AI compute, mission-ready security, and climate infrastructure that behaves like collateral

Capital is concentrating in three segments: