Eclipse Ventures Turns $6.5 Million Cerebras Investment Into $2.5 Billion IPO Return

Eclipse Ventures, founded by Lior Susan in 2015, said its $6.5 million Series A investment in Cerebras Systems in 2016 generated a total return of $2.5 billion when the semiconductor company went public this week.

“Eclipse Ventures turns $6”

Crypto Briefing

Eclipse reported it invested a total of $147 million in Cerebras over time, producing a 17-fold return at the IPO price of $185 per share, and Susan framed the windfall as the start of gains from digitizing the physical world.

Crypto Briefing

Susan told StrictlyVC in San Francisco that the early years felt “fairly lonely the first couple of years” during what he called the era of enterprise software and SaaS.

He argued that while software can be built with coding tools, “manufacturing wafers cannot be done with such coding tools,” because it requires specialized machines, silicon, and clean rooms.

Pluang also highlighted the broader investor attention on physical-world tech, noting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s $31.28 billion capital expenditure plan to expand advanced chip manufacturing capabilities.

Susan said public markets and startup founders are increasingly recognizing the value of physical-world technology, pointing to recent all-time highs for shares of TSMC and Micron.

He echoed public market sentiment earlier this year that sent many SaaS stocks lower on the belief that enterprises might use advanced AI models to develop custom software tools.

IndexBox

At the StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, Susan said, “I think people understand that the real moat in software is gone,” adding, “You can vibe code pretty much whatever you want.”

Crypto Briefing put the Cerebras outcome in return-multiple terms, saying Eclipse’s $6.5 million stake was worth an estimated $2.5 billion and describing the move as roughly a 385x return.

Crypto Briefing also reported that Cerebras went public with shares priced at $185 and that the stock closed its first day of trading at $311, a 68% pop.

Beyond semiconductors, Eclipse said its portfolio spans robotics, energy, and defense, with portfolio companies raising nearly $15 billion from outside investors last year.

“Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co”

Pluang

IndexBox said that late-stage momentum reached $4.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone, while it contrasted that with Eclipse’s early performance when portfolio companies raised less than $4 billion over its first eight years.

TechCrunch described follow-on rounds across Eclipse’s portfolio, including $1.2 billion for Wayve, $650 million for True Anomaly, $270 million for Bedrock Robotics, and $200 million for Oxide Computer, with Eclipse as the Series A investor for all four companies.

TechCrunch also quoted Susan arguing that, besides technology, “what’s important for this market to thrive is capital, customer demand, talent, and policy,” and it tied the momentum to U.S. government subsidies and favorable regulation.

In the same passage, Susan said, “This is the first time I believe in America ever, from Henry Ford and Carnegie, those five forces are aligned,” and he added, “For builders like us, this is the best time to build those companies.”