Reflections from Burlingame on TDK Ventures’ flagship summit, August 25–27, 2026
There are conferences you attend, and there are conferences that recalibrate how you think about the next decade. TDK Ventures’ 100X 2026, held this week in Burlingame, California, was firmly in the second category. As a proud co-sponsor on behalf of Foley, I had the privilege of supporting my friend and client Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures, as he and his team convened an extraordinary, invitation-only gathering of founders, institutional partners, investors, and corporate leaders who were all focused on a single organizing question: what does it take to build companies that scale not 10x, but 100x?
This year’s theme was the convergence of the energy transition and digital innovation, with a sharp focus on the trajectory of AI, which could not have been more timely. Over three days, from Tuesday’s welcome reception through Wednesday’s Catalyst Day and Thursday’s Portfolio Summit, the program made one thing unmistakably clear: the artificial boundary between “energy” and “digital” has collapsed. The companies that will define the coming decade are being built at the seam.
The Pursuit of 100X
Nicolas opened Catalyst Day the way he approaches everything — with intentionality and warmth — before handing the stage to Chuck Mattera, former Chairman and CEO of Coherent, for a fireside chat aptly titled “The Pursuit of 100X: Building What Comes Next,” moderated by TDK Ventures Investment Director Tina Tosukhowong. Mattera, who spent two decades transforming II-VI into a global photonics and semiconductor leader, offered a masterclass in long-horizon company building: disciplined capital allocation, strategic acquisition, and the patience to compound advantages over decades. For an audience of hard-tech founders, hearing from someone who actually built a 100x outcome — rather than merely theorized about one — set the tone for everything that followed.
AI Steps Into the Physical World
The first panel, “From Models to Motion: AI Enters the Physical World,” tackled the question on everyone’s mind: now that foundation models have conquered language, what happens when intelligence meets actuators? The lineup was formidable — Jennifer Gill Roberts of Grit Ventures, Ben Burchfiel of Walden Robotics (formerly Head of Robotics at Toyota Research Institute), robotics pioneer Claire Delaunay of OPALIN (whose résumé spans NVIDIA, Google X, and Uber), and Les Karpas, NVIDIA Inception’s Global Head of Physical AI, with Modar Alaoui of ALM Ventures and the Humanoids Summit moderating.
The discussion ranged across topics, from data bottlenecks that still constrain robot learning to the realities of deploying autonomous systems in factories, farms, and homes. The consensus was that physical AI is no longer a research curiosity but an industrial buildout. The hardware, sensors, and components ecosystem (squarely in TDK’s wheelhouse) will determine who wins.
Energy: The New Compute Constraint
The morning session belonged to robots, and the next session belonged to electrons. “AI Runs on Power: Energy as the New Compute Constraint” brought together Kaitlin Savage of Google’s energy market development team, political strategist and advisor Jim Messina, Tarun Raisoni of AI Fabrik, Brad Li of Sineng Electric, and Greg Robinson of Aston Labs. The panel looked at the defining infrastructure challenge of the AI era: compute demand is scaling faster than the grid can absorb it.
What made this conversation exceptional was its focus on hyperscaler procurement strategy, power electronics, policy and permitting realities, and startup opportunities. Messina’s presence underscored a point too many technologists overlook: the energy-AI buildout is as much a political and regulatory challenge as an engineering one.
The Founders Take the Stage
The afternoon breakout pitch sessions were the heartbeat of the event. Two parallel tracks showcased the next generation of hard-tech ambition. “Powering What’s Next” featured Overlord Labs, Standard Superconductor, Glimpse, INERATEC, Project Omega, Overview Energy, Rodatherm, Icebox Energy, Voya Energy, and Aboard Mobility. “Building the Foundations of Intelligence” featured VioNano, Vellex, NovoLINC, Mixx Technology, Mantis Space, Besxar, Virewirx, Runara, and Tacta.
Superconductors, synthetic fuels, geothermal, thermal management, space systems, and next-generation compute conversations were dazzling, but the common thread was that these are founders solving physics-hard problems with commercial discipline. This is what TDK Ventures means when it talks about backing “impact scalers.”
Infrastructure in Orbit
One of the day’s most forward-looking sessions, “Infrastructure in Orbit: When Space Becomes Infrastructure,” reframed space not as a destination but as a utility layer. George Hoyem, the longtime In-Q-Tel investment leader now with Lavrock, joined Rob Meyerson, who, as President of Blue Origin, oversaw more than 100x growth in staff, alongside David Anderson of Ramon Space and Eric Truitt of Mantis Space, with Manu Nair of The Guild moderating. From space-based computing to orbital power beaming, the panel made a compelling case that the space economy’s next chapter is about picks, shovels, and power lines — in orbit.
The Founder Operating System
Catalyst Day closed with a fireside chat between legendary investor and operator Young Sohn, Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures, and the TDK Ventures team on the “Founder Operating System in 2026–2028.” Sohn, former CEO of three public tech companies, board member at Arm and Cadence, and early investor in Zoom and Ring, distilled decades of pattern recognition into practical guidance on how founders must operate in an era of AI-accelerated competition and capital discipline.
Portfolio Summit Day: The Power of the Mothership
Thursday shifted to the Portfolio Summit, where TDK Ventures’ portfolio companies engaged directly with TDK Corporation’s senior leadership. Nicolas and Portfolio Program Director Geetha Dholakia opened the day, followed by a fireside chat with TDK’s Chief Technology Officer, Shuichi Hashiyama, and a live Q&A with TDK Corporate Officers including Joe Lam, Shigeki Sato, and Ludger Trockel. This is corporate venture capital done right: not a logo on a slide, but genuine strategic engagement between startups and a century-old global technology leader.
Golden Nuggets from the TDK Ventures Team
In what has become a beloved 100X tradition, Nicolas and the TDK Ventures team closed out the conversation with their “golden nuggets.” Among them:
- Energy is the new compute. The winners of the AI era will be those who solve for power, not just parameters.
- Physical AI is here. Intelligence is leaving the data center and entering the factory, the field, and orbit.
- 100x outcomes take decades, not quarters. Compounding of technology, trust, and talent remains the only reliable path.
- The best founders build with, not just for. Strategic partnership with corporates like TDK accelerates the journey from lab to global scale.
Congratulations to Nicolas Sauvage and the entire TDK Ventures team on a truly inspiring event. Foley was honored to co-sponsor, and I left Burlingame the way one should leave a great conference: with a full notebook, new friends, and renewed conviction that the hardest problems attract the best people. Here’s to the pursuit of 100x.
