DCVC 2026 Q2 update

Friends of DCVC,

It was a big quarter for DCVC. On the Flagship / Energy + Climate side, from Fervo​’s historic energy/climate IPO, to Agility Robotics’ announce­ment of its plan to go public, to a $2 billion federal quantum investment affecting four DCVC portcos, our companies have spent the past three months proving what deep tech can accomplish at speed and at scale.

The headline: Fervo Energy (Nasdaq: FRVO) had its IPO in May, raising $2.2 billion in what bankers described as the largest primary clean energy public equity deal of all time. DCVC’s Zack Bogue and Rachel Slaybaugh joined the Fervo team at the Nasdaq for the bell-ringing ceremony. We’ve been proud to back this company since 2022.

Also this quarter, Agility Robotics—which we’ve been proud to back in every round since co-leading an early investment in 2020 — announced its plans to go public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI (Nasdaq: CCXI), a major milestone that would make it the only U.S. publicly listed pure-play humanoid robotics company with real, revenue-generating commercial deployments.

In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $2 billion initiative to accelerate fault-tolerant quantum computing — a program that materially involves four DCVC portfolio companies: Atom Computing and Rigetti Computing were each awarded $100 million, Quantum Motion will benefit from the $375 million allocation to Glob­al­Foundries, and IBM — whose efforts to achieve true fault tolerance and scale are dependent on DCVC-backed Q‑CTRL—received $1 billion. These milestones reflect a future we at DCVC have been building toward for years.

Fortem Tech­nolo­gies had an extra­or­di­nary quarter — protecting the 2026 FIFA World Cup venues with its Drone­Hunters, receiving a $25 million strategic investment from Lockheed Martin, and having its R‑40 radars used to detect and shoot down a test attack drone in a live-fire Lockheed demonstration.

DCVC Bio had an equally active quarter. Latus Bio, Sidewinder Ther­a­peu­tics, and Syntax Bio all closed significant financing rounds, while Newleos dosed its first patients in a Phase 1b study, Solu Ther­a­peu­ticsreceived FDA Fast Track designation, and Orca Bio (also backed by DCVC Flagship) capped the quarter with FDA approval of TREGZI — its first approved therapy and the first precision-engineered cell therapy approved for allogeneic transplant in adults with blood cancers. We are proud to have backed this amazing company from its origins.

Finally, today we release our fourth annual Deep Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties report, reflecting our partnership’s deter­mi­na­tion of the most compelling oppor­tu­ni­ties across deep tech — from energy, computing and AI, quantum, and manu­fac­turing to drug discovery, robotics, and defense. This year’s theme — ​“Back to Funda­men­tals in an Age of Exponential Change” — is a direct response to inten­si­fying unpre­dictability and the need across industries for a reset in core areas of technology.

We were delighted to see many of you at our second annual Deep Tech Week Salon in SF last week to celebrate the launch of the report, and we hope you all will enjoy the report!

Now, on to the highlights below — we wish you an excellent quarter ahead!

FUNDING HIGHLIGHTS

Agility Robotics, which we’ve been proud to back in every round since co-leading an early investment round in 2020, announced plans to go public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI (Nasdaq: CCXI), valuing the company at $2.5 billion pre-money with over $620 million in expected gross proceeds. The merger would make Agility the only U.S. publicly listed pure-play humanoid company with proven, active commercial deployments across partners including Schaeffler, GXO, Toyota, and Mercado Libre.

Fervo Energy raised $2.2 billion in its Nasdaq IPO ($FRVO), pricing above the marketed range in the largest primary clean energy public equity deal of all time.

DCVC Flagship / DCVC Energy + Climate

Atom Computing raised over $300 million, including $100 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce under the CHIPS Act and a $100 million Series C (in which DCVC partic­i­pated), to accelerate the development of fault-tolerant, neutral-atom quantum computers.

Impulse Space raised $500 million in a Series D, joined by DCVC, at a $4.26 billion post-money valuation, to expand production of its orbital transfer vehicles supporting growing commercial and government demand in space.

Kanvas Biosciences raised a $48 million Series A, co-led by DCVC, to advance its microbiome-based ther­a­peu­tics platform for cancer.

Quantum Motion raised a $160 million Series C, co-led by DCVC, to scale its energy-efficient, silicon-based quantum computers — making it the UK’s best-funded quantum computing company.

Recursive Super­in­tel­li­gence emerged from stealth with $650 million in funding (joined by DCVC), founded by former DeepMind and OpenAI researchers to pursue self-improving AI. 

Rigetti Computing was awarded up to $100 million by the U.S. Department of Commerce under the CHIPS Act to accelerate R&D in super­con­ducting quantum computing — part of the government’s broader $2 billion initiative to advance fault-tolerant quantum systems.

DCVC Bio

Latus Bio closed a $97 million Series A (including a $43 million extension joined by DCVC Bio) to advance AAV-based gene therapies for Huntington’s disease and CLN2/Batten disease into clinical trials.

Sidewinder Ther­a­peu­tics raised a $137 million Series B, joined by DCVC Bio, to advance its bispecific antibody-drug conjugates toward clinical testing for lung cancer.

Syntax Bio expanded its Series A to $14.4 million (joined by DCVC Bio) — bringing total funding to over $25 million — to advance its Cellgorithm platform and pancreatic beta cell therapy program for type 1 diabetes. 

OTHER NEWS

DCVC Flagship / DCVC Energy + Climate

Agility Robotics partnered with NVIDIA to become the first company to integrate NVIDIA Halos for Robotics — the industry’s first full-stack safety system for physical AI — into its Digit humanoid, bringing a new standard of responsible automation to the factories, warehouses, and logistics operations where Digit is already deployed.

Fervo partnered with NVIDIA and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop EGS-Twin, a next-generation digital twin platform for enhanced geothermal systems that integrates real-time field data, physics-based modeling, and AI-driven forecasting to optimize reservoir management and maximize power generation.

Halter launched a world-first direct-to-satellite connec­tivity service for its smart cattle collars via Starlink, enabling virtual fencing for beef producers in areas previously unreachable by cellular networks.

Impulse Space was named by Anduril as a key partner in its consortium selected to develop space-based missile inter­cep­tors for the U.S. government’s Golden Dome program.

Kanvas Biosciences dosed the first patients in a Phase I clinical trial for KAN-004 alongside announcing its Series A, marking an early but meaningful clinical milestone for its microbiome-based oncology platform.

Lunar Energy announced a partnership with Octopus Energy to launch a zero-upfront-cost, battery-powered retail electricity plan for Texas residents, offering 30 kWh home battery systems at a fixed rate.

Mythic acquired European digital processor company Videantis, expanding its energy-efficient AI compute platform.

Pivot Bio opened two new Centers of Excellence in the St. Louis area, investing over $7 million to boost U.S. manu­fac­turing and research capa­bil­i­ties for its microbial nitrogen fixation products.

Q‑CTRL partnered with IonQ to natively integrate its Fire Opal software into IonQ Quantum Cloud, enabling any user to solve real-world opti­miza­tion problems on IonQ’s Forte quantum processors without specialized hardware expertise.

Radiant was selected by the U.S. Air Force to develop a nuclear microre­actor for Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado — America’s first commer­cially developed microre­actor to support a military facility.

Reality Defender struck a deal to provide deepfake detection to French telecom Orange Business and launched a new ethics committee to govern its AI safety infrastructure.

Twelve officially opened AirPlant One, the world’s first commercial-scale eSAF facility. The Washington State plant converts CO₂ and green electricity into E‑Jet sustainable aviation fuel and E‑Naphtha and is actively selling its output into the global jet fuel markets.

unspun announced plans to build 10 automated apparel manu­fac­turing hubs in the U.S. using AI-enabled 3D weaving technology, backed by letters of support from Walmart and REI.

Valar Labs received an FDA Break­through Device Designation for its Vesta Bladder Risk Stratify Dx — the first AI-based digital pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer to receive such a designation. 

DCVC Bio

Latus Bio presented gene therapy data at ASGCT 2026 for LTS-101 (CLN2/Batten disease) and LTS-201 (Huntington’s disease), building on its novel AAV capsid platform.

Newleos dosed the first participant in its Phase 1b study of NTX-2001, a potential first-in-class TAAR1 partial agonist for alcohol use disorder, in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted with the Yale School of Medicine.

Orca Bio (also backed by DCVC Flagship) received FDA approval for TREGZI (Orca‑T), making it the first and only precision-engineered cell therapy approved for allogeneic stem cell transplant in adults with hema­to­log­ical malig­nan­cies — and Orca Bio’s first approved therapy. In the pivotal Precision‑T Phase 3 study, patients receiving TREGZI were twice as likely to be alive without chronic graft-versus-host disease at one year compared with conventional transplant.

Plexium presented preclinical efficacy data for PLX-61639, its oral monovalent SMARCA2 degrader, in SMARCA4-mutated solid tumors at AACR 2026, with the first patient dosed in January 2026 as dose escalation continues in the ongoing Phase 1 first-in-human study.

Solu Ther­a­peu­tics was granted FDA Fast Track designation for STX-0712, its inves­ti­ga­tional CyTAC therapy targeting relapsed or refractory chronic myelomono­cytic leukemia (CMML), a rare and aggressive blood cancer.