Your Window Into the Innovation Economy

In 2022, U.S. companies posted nearly 68,600 openings for cybersecurity analysts — a common entry-level role in Security Operations Centers (SOCs). Three years later, that number has dropped nearly 50% to just 36,000. That shift is not the result of a recession or hiring freeze. It’s happening during a time of elevated cyber risk and persistent workforce shortages. The underlying reason is something more structural: AI has begun to automate away the first layer of cybersecurity work.

The foundational bottlenecks of technology have shifted from software layers to physical constraints like energy, critical minerals, and manufacturing capacity — now the true rate-limiters to AI and reindustrialization. As megawatts and metals become the new protocols of progress, venture-scale opportunities lie in upgrading power infrastructure, securing domestic mineral supply chains, and accelerating extraction, refining, and recycling. The Energy & Strategic Minerals Syndicate is backing the founders building solutions for this new industrial frontier, where power availability and resource resilience define the future of innovation.

The rise of “vibe coding” — using natural language and AI to build software without traditional coding — is part of a broader transformation in how work is done across industries. AI is accelerating cognitive tasks, enhancing creativity, and automating complex workflows, reshaping sectors like legal, finance, healthcare, and software development. For investors, the opportunity lies in backing AI-native companies that boost human potential and operate with unmatched speed, efficiency, and creativity.

On a dusty stretch of desert outside Phoenix, Arizona, a skyline of steel frames and clean-room towers is rising. Not for apartments or office towers, but for a “city within a city” devoted to making the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the linchpin of global chip supply, is pouring tens of billions into three new fabrication plants here, with help from the CHIPS and Science Act. The stakes are far larger than jobs or tax revenue. In a world where the tiniest chips control everything from F-35 fighters to the servers that train large language models, bringing this capacity onto U.S. soil is as much about deterrence as it is about commerce. As TSMC founder Morris Chang bluntly put it, “Globalization is almost dead. Free trade is almost dead.”

In June 2025, a significant cyberattack on a major U.S. grocery wholesaler shut down the company’s ordering system and left empty shelves in stores across the country — plus nearly half a billion in lost sales to the wholesaler. In 2024, a ransomware attack on the UK’s National Health System resulted in fatalities. In 2021, Russia’s cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline forced the shutdown of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, triggering gas shortages across the East Coast.

Alumni Ventures is one of the world’s most active venture capital firms, backing trailblazing companies that are reshaping industries and defining the future. Over the past decade, we’ve invested in breakthroughs across AI, biotechnology, quantum computing, and next-generation manufacturing — domains that push the boundaries of what’s possible. Today, we’re excited to introduce the AV Deep Tech 10 — a curated selection of 10 game-changing portfolio companies at the forefront of deep tech innovation.

The Problem With the Story We’ve Been Sold Silicon Valley loves a certain image: the hoodie-wearing college dropout who changes the world before being allowed to rent car. There’s even a fellowship that pays kids under 23 to quit school and start companies. The message? Younger is better. Here’s the problem: it’s just not true. Middle-aged founders crush young ones when it comes to building high-growth companies — it’s not even close. And I’m one of them. At the age of 49, I started Alumni Ventures, recently valued as a unicorn.*

A 10th grader opens her phone after practice. For pennies a day, an AI tutor watches her solve two algebra steps, spots the exact misconception, and rewrites the next problem on the fly — no waiting, no shame, faster progress. Now put that next to the classroom we’ve known since 1925: one teacher, 30 students, one pace. That gap represents the once-in-a-century opportunity to rewire a $6 trillion global education and training market with AI. Alumni Ventures wants to invite you to be part of that opportunity. We’re launching the AV Education 2.0 Community & Syndicate so you can back the first winners across K‑12, higher‑ed, workforce, and language learning to take advantage of this AI revolution.

At Alumni Ventures, we invest in the builders shaping the next generation of transformative technology. When we first evaluated Cohere, we weren’t just looking at growth metrics — we were examining a differentiated approach in one of the most competitive markets in tech. This is the story of why we backed a company that’s quietly become one of the fastest-growing names in AI.

In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find that a petri dish of Staphylococcus cultures had been contaminated — an accident that led to the discovery of penicillin. Ninety years later, in 2018, Japanese scientists accidentally altered an enzyme and found it could break down plastic significantly faster. What connects these seemingly unrelated moments isn’t meticulous adherence to the scientific method. These “happy accidents” weren’t born from controlled, procedural experimentation. Instead, they reflect how scientific breakthroughs often emerge from veering off course, driven not by protocol, but by the curiosity, intuition, and creativity that define human discovery.

As AI and automation dominate tech headlines, a powerful countertrend is emerging: a growing demand for real-world, human-first experiences. Alumni Ventures’ Sports & Humans First Syndication Club backs entrepreneurs building platforms that foster community, identity, and embodied connection  —  not as a rejection of technology, but as its highest purpose. From wellness and skill-sharing to sports and third spaces, this fund invests in scalable, culture-driven solutions that enhance what makes us uniquely human.