AlleyCorp Deep Tech | February 2026 Newsletter
A recap of our first-ever DTNY with NYCβs deep tech community showing up in full-force
Hey friends β Welcome back to the AlleyCorp Deep Tech newsletter.
First off - Happy New Year! I know it is February... but I donβt think itβs ever too late to say we genuinely hope 2026 has been, and will continue to be, a terrific year for you.
In this edition, weβll recap our inaugural Deep Tech New York (DTNY) summit which was held on January 28th, and recount the exceptional talks that took place.
Thank you to everyone who came! And for those that couldnβt make it, it was a truly incredible day β exceeding every expectation our team had since we first discussed DTNY as a concept over a year ago. With 400+ attendees and 20+ speakers, the deep tech community showed up, and showed out, bringing so much energy and proving NYC is a deep tech powerhouse.
The feedback has been exceptional, and we look forward to hearing other ideas from you on how we can continue to build DTNY into a year-long community. More on that below, along with the usual updates across the AlleyCorp ecosystem and interesting things weβre seeing and reading.
~Brannon
DTNY 2026: Thatβs a Wrap
Iβll be honest β we were nervous. Launching a new conference in late January in Brooklyn, in 10 degree weather - days after a winter storm no less, is not exactly a layup. But the deep tech community came through in a big way.
We structured the day around the themes that will define the next several decades in deep tech β Conversations for Tomorrow, as we called it β bringing together a star-studded crew of innovators across energy abundance, robotics and manufacturing, space and satellite maneuverability, AI and computation, and the connective tissue that runs through it all, pushing the boundaries of science itself.
Check out this awesome recap video that summarizes the hype of DTNY so well:
βAbundant Clean Energy Is Comingβ
To start, Isaiah Taylor (Valar Atomics) and Will Cahill (Applied Maritime Sciences) delivered talks that set the tone β ambitious, technical, and grounded in real progress β laying out what the future of nuclear energy development will look like and how delivering cheap energy across the world can change the landscape of the global economy.
A panel on the βAge of Mastery Over Mineralsβ followed, featuring Garrett Winther (Newlab), Kunal Sinha (Valor), and MicheΓ‘l Ganley (Bethlehem Steel) as the three unpacked another critical bottleneck that sits alongside the energy economy: critical minerals and their limitations on the future scalability of AI and automation.
βScience is a Strong-Link Problemβ
Joseph Krause (Radical AI) walked us through his vision for a new way to discover new materials, followed by a talk on the βEconomics of Techno-Optimismβ where Packy McCormick (Not Boring), Raquel Schreiber (GearWorks), and Gale Pooley (Superabundance) shared their perspectives on the net-positives of human ingenuity, despite the endless ways technology will reshape our society.
Our very own founder and CEO, Kevin Ryan (AlleyCorp), moderated an additional panel on βInvesting in the Sci-Fact Futureβ which featured Danielle Strachman (1517 Fund) and Albert Wenger (Union Square Ventures) and covered similar themes on game-changing technologies, the disruption of labor markets, and much more.
βThe Robots Will Build Themselvesβ & βTaking Our Place in Spaceβ
Hod Lipson (Columbia University), Micah Springut (Monumental Labs), and Andrew McAfee (MIT) all highlighted cutting-edge technologies in the world of robotics and manufacturing, sharing how the next generation of physical automation will be driven by autonomous learning systems and require minimal human intervention, and completely change the way physical things are made and scaled.
Jeff Thornburg (Portal Space Systems) and Noah Planavsky (Yale University) joined our afternoon slate, giving talks on the massive progress being made in space maneuverability, CO2 capture, and the ways our planet (and planetary exploration) fits into the larger strategic roadmap of space.
βComputation Will Scale Intelligenceβ & βThe Deep Futureβ
Gill Verdon (Extropic) and Dr. Manuela Veloso (JPMorganChase) detailed the next frontier of computation, explaining how certain compute stacks are being overly relied on and pointing out where opportunities may exist to make radical improvements to AI hardware.
To wrap up the day, Josie Zayner (The Embryo Corporation) and Pablos Holman (Deep Future) gave two of the most inspiring (and head turning / brain breaking π€―) talks of the program, laying out why we do what we do, and how the world of deep tech is an incredibly vast landscape for the most groundbreaking opportunities imaginable.
Thank You
A massive thank you to our team at AlleyCorp for being the driving force to make DTNY a reality.
And, of course, thank you to our incredible sponsors and partners: Newlab, Pillsbury, J.P. Morgan, CSC Leasing, GENIUS NY, Infinite Capital, Reindustrialize, Stifel Financial Corp., SVB, and New York Robotics.
More from DTNY Coming Soon!
Weβve heard from so many people about what a huge success the inaugural DTNY was, and throughout the coming months, we are already planning other ways we can bring everyone together through more exceptional events, differentiated deep tech content, unique access to whatβs being built across NYC and the country, and more.
Keep an eye out for invitations to what weβll have in-store for you next, and be ready to mark your calendar for DTNY 2027 once weβre ready to announce. We have no doubt it can be even bigger, better, and louder.
DTNY cleared the hardest hurdle in year one: people care, and they want more. The path forward isnβt dilution β itβs discipline and compounding.
From Sci-Fi to Sci-Fact. Weβre just getting started. π
Around the Horn: AlleyCorp on the Road
Manifest 2026 β Vegas, Baby
I moderated a panel at Manifest 2026 this week (February 9-11) at The Venetian in Las Vegas β the worldβs largest supply chain and logistics tech event, gathering 7,200+ attendees and 400+ speakers. Manifest has been expanding its focus into robotics, advanced manufacturing, and automation, and Iβm excited to be part of those conversations. If youβre here, letβs connect.
Guest Lecturing at Princeton
It was a full-circle moment to head back to my alma mater and give a guest lecture at Princetonβs Venture Capital & Finance of Innovation course with my colleague Susannah Shipton. As a Princeton MAE alum and former D1 football player there (& two-time ivy league champ for the record! πππͺπΎπ), getting to talk to the next generation of engineers about deep tech investing, the journey from SpaceX to venture capital, and what it means to build at the frontier was so so special. I am very grateful to Professor Shahram Hejazi and his brilliant students for inviting us.
Harvard MS/MBA Pitches
Abe was recently on campus at Harvard Business School, supporting this yearβs MS/MBA program for their annual pitch event as one of their program advisors. It is always fun to get back on campus and sit on the other side of the table! He met and mentored awesome teams building in deep tech - from undersea autonomy to kitchen robots to turbo machinery. We love seeing this generation of students tackling problems that matter. Keep building π¦Ύ
What Weβre Reading
The SpaceX-xAI Merger β Chamathβs breakdown of the $1.25T merger is worth your time. The core thesis around orbital data centers β leveraging space-based solar power and natural cold for cooling AI compute β is the kind of deep tech thesis that makes you sit up in your chair. Elonβs quote lands: βThose who have lived in software land donβt realize theyβre about to have a hard lesson in hardware.β Read it here.
The Pentagon's Gallium Obsession β The WSJ digs into why the Defense Department is pouring millions into building a domestic pipeline for gallium, the quirky liquid-at-room-temperature metal that's essential for military radar, electronic warfare systems, and satellite semiconductors. The problem: China controls roughly 99% of global gallium refining and has effectively weaponized that dominance through export bans. With defense contractor stockpiles running dangerously low, the race to build alternative supply chains β from Texas scrap-recovery facilities to allied-nation partnerships β is one of the most consequential deep tech infrastructure challenges of the decade. Critical minerals are the backbone of the hardware future. Read it here.
Fauna Robotics Launches Sprout β NYCβs own Fauna Robotics came out of stealth with Sprout, a 3.5-foot, 50 lb friendly humanoid designed for shared human spaces. Early customers include Disney and Boston Dynamics. The safety-first, developer-platform approach is a refreshing contrast to the arms race for bigger, scarier humanoids. This is how robots actually get into homes, schools, and retail. Check them out.
Investing in Flapping Airplanes β David Cahn (Sequoia) on backing Flapping Airplanes, a βyoung personβs AGI labβ founded by two brothers building data-efficient AI models. The counter-narrative to scale-everything is compelling: thereβs only one internet, weβve run out of it, and data β not compute β is the real bottleneck. Read it here.
Humanoids Platform & NVIDIA Dream Zero β Andra Keayβs latest Robots & Startups roundup covers NVIDIAβs new βWorld Action Modelβ (Dream Zero), which enables zero-shot, open-world prompting for robot foundation models. Plus Waymoβs new world model built on Google DeepMindβs Genie 3. The pace of robotics AI is accelerating fast. Read it here.
Peter Walker (Carta) on VC Trends β Peter continues to be one of the best data storytellers in venture. His latest insights on the state of early-stage funding, founder ownership dilution, and the gap between AI-mega-rounds and the rest of the market are essential reading for any founder or investor. Follow him on X.
Thatβs it for this month. DTNY was a career highlight and a community milestone. Iβm grateful to everyone who believed in this from the beginning and showed up on January 28th to make it real. Now we build on it.
Thanks for reading β see you next month.
~Brannon