Descriptions:
Bloomberg Technology interviews an Index Ventures partner on the firm’s growing focus on physical AI — the application of AI to hardware, engineering, and real-world systems rather than software and knowledge work. The conversation traces how Index’s AI portfolio has evolved from foundation model investments (Anthropic) and inference infrastructure (Fireworks) through application companies, and now toward a deliberate bet on companies serving electrical, mechanical, and aerospace engineers who have been using largely unchanged software stacks since the 1980s.
The partner highlights two recent investments as illustrative of the thesis: Revel, founded by Scott Borden who spent a decade at SpaceX in launch control and is building better software for hardware teams, and Quilter, founded by Sergey Nesterenko who spent six years at SpaceX and is using AI to autonomously lay out printed circuit boards — a task previously requiring manual human intervention. Both companies represent a pattern the firm is actively tracking: deep technical talent leaving SpaceX to build AI-native tools for physical engineering workflows.
The SpaceX IPO features prominently as a potential market catalyst. The partner argues it will validate the physical AI market opportunity for broader investors and draw significantly more private capital into the sector. The interview also touches on the difficulty of finding public market proxies for valuing humanoid robotics companies and the general importance of IPO windows for VC portfolio liquidity. For anyone tracking the frontier between AI software and physical-world automation, this offers a clear view of where one major firm is placing its bets.
📺 Source: Bloomberg Technology · Published June 05, 2026
🏷️ Format: Interview
