SAN FRANCISCO — Eclipse Ventures realized a $2.5 billion return on its $147 million investment in Cerebras Systems after the chipmaker went public in mid-May 2026, according to Eclipse. The firm's stake produced a 17-fold return at the IPO price of $185 per share, according to Eclipse. Eclipse first backed Cerebras with a $6.5 million Series A investment in 2016 and added capital across subsequent rounds, bringing its total commitment to $147 million.

The firm was founded in 2015 by Lior Susan around an investment thesis focused on digitizing the physical world. That approach was not popular in Silicon Valley during the firm's early years, when venture capital was concentrated on enterprise software and software-as-a-service companies.

Susan said the competitive dynamics in software have shifted as artificial intelligence tools have made code generation more accessible. "I think people understand that the real moat in software is gone. You can vibe code pretty much whatever you want," he said.

He contrasted that with the requirements of hardware businesses such as Cerebras, which designs and produces large-scale processors for artificial intelligence workloads. "What you cannot do with 'vibe code' is manufacture wafers, because you need machines and silicon, and they need clean rooms, and a bunch of other things," Susan said. Pointing to current conditions for industrial and hardware startups in the United States, he said, "This is the first time I believe in America ever, from Henry Ford and Carnegie, those five forces are aligned. For builders like us, this is the best time to build those companies."