Deep Tech Opportunities Report 2026 (DCVC (Data Collective))

Summary

• In May 2026, geothermal innovator Fervo Energy completed an initial public offering on Nasdaq, raising $2.2 billion.p.8
• Clean energy and decarbonization investments in the United States reached $278 billion in 2025, representing a 5 percent increase from 2024.p.12
• Global data center construction spending is projected by Moody's to reach $3 trillion over the next five years.p.17
• Training OpenAI's GPT-4 model cost over $100 million, while training its successor GPT-5 required two runs costing over $500 million each.p.18
• Between 2022 and 2025, Fervo Energy reduced its geothermal per-foot drilling costs by about 70 percent from over $800 per foot to $200-$300 per foot.p.30

Key insights

1. SpaceX filed a prospectus in May 2026 for an initial public offering targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion.p.11
2. Anthropic's latest financing valued the company at $900 billion after its second-quarter revenue doubled to $10.9 billion.p.11
3. In 2025, data centers accounted for roughly 5 percent of total electrical generation in the United States.p.17
4. Iceberg Quantum's Pinnacle QLDPC architecture could theoretically factor a 2048-bit RSA key using 100,000 physical qubits.p.27
5. Fervo Energy has secured 658 megawatts of power purchase agreements alongside an agreement with Google to develop up to 3 gigawatts of geothermal capacity.p.31
6. Oklo secured a prepayment agreement with Meta to construct a powerhouse campus delivering up to 1.2 gigawatts of power capacity.p.33
7. Pacific Fusion raised over $900 million in initial milestone-locked funding to build a pulsed magnetic fusion system.p.35
8. Merck's Keytruda recorded $31.7 billion in revenue in 2025, though only 20 to 40 percent of patients currently respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors.p.52