Seizing the National Deep Tech Moment for Our Region
July 2025
Alline Akintore
In the conversation around deep tech, Silicon Valley, Boston, and Austin still dominate the headlines. That said, our region of Oregon and Southern Washington, long known for its semiconductor heritage, could emerge as a contender in the current wave of deep tech innovation.
Spotlight on VC investing in deep tech
Across the US, early-stage venture capital is shifting towards hardware, semiconductors, space tech, energy, medical devices, and biotech. Last year Carta reported that since 2019, only deep tech and health tech startups continue to grow net employee headcount each quarter (even through the downturns that affected SaaS). Also, nationally, deep tech continues to buck the trend of slowing investment outside AI: deep tech investments have grown over 2X since 2019. These companies are building and hiring.
Comparing apples to apples here on OVF’s home turf: startups in our region raised a total of $613M in 2024. ~$100M of those investments were raised by deep tech startups, although that is just one-third of what was raised by deep tech startups in 2019.
AI and tapping the silicon spine of Oregon
AI plays a monumental role in the growth of deep tech. While AI is reshaping product development in domains like biotech and robotics, AI’s progress and growth are fundamentally constrained by hardware and semiconductor technology. This tension creates an opportunity for deep innovation.
Zooming in on semiconductors: when it comes to durable innovation, few regions offer a better asymmetric bet than Oregon’s semiconductor corridor.
15% of the US semiconductor workforce is here, despite being ~1.3% of the national population.
Billions of dollars continue to be invested by leading silicon logos like Intel, Lam Research, and others on R&D in advanced packaging, AI chip manufacturing, energy-stable infrastructure, and you name it.
With this concentration of talent, infrastructure, research and the industrial base for scale, one might wonder: a) why there were only a handful of semiconductor startups seeded in 2024, and b) could Oregon’s AI/semiconductor overlap be underexploited and rich with potential to incubate the next AI hardware moonshot?
Oregon Innovation Showcase: catalyzing innovation here
Which is why it was timely for the inaugural Oregon Innovation Showcase in May 2025, organized by Business Oregon. The showcase featured deep tech companies across robotics, medtech, climate tech, and AI – all sectors that demand real technical breakthroughs driven by specialized talent. It was a demonstration of how the winning formula of talent/innovation + research + partnerships + capital can turbocharge our ecosystem right now when the iron is hot.
Institutions like OHSU, OSU, ONAMI and UO that were central to the showcase showed their conviction in driving the deep tech flywheel from research to startup. For example, ONAMI provides real-world prototyping and commercial pathways for high-tech startups. Former OVF portfolio company, Absci – now a $350M market cap company – was spun out of and supported by PSU.
The CapEx to deliver on deep tech innovation and the time horizon to see successful outcomes, makes survivability in this space even more difficult than other sectors (and it goes without saying that building startups is hard as it is!). Which is why we need industry-academia partnerships to continue to expand, to provide access to shared resources like lab space, foundries, test facilities and hardware. It was heartening to see deep tech focused venture funds actively participate at the showcase. The more capital there is to support this innovation, the better for all involved.
It feels like we are in a golden and urgent moment for our region and the May showcase validated the bench strength that exists across startups, academia, and industry. We are all looking forward to seeing the showcase grow every year and attract even more talent, partnerships, and capital to our region.
Not only do we have what it takes, but the innovation map in the US is also shifting: according to New Geography, 20% of top deep tech companies are now headquartered outside traditional hubs. Silicon Valley is home to ~39% of deep tech unicorns; Boston claims 25% and Seattle at 6%. This is in stark contrast to AI: Silicon Valley attracted 65% of venture dollars globally over the last 2 years.
To wrap it up…
At OVF we believe that a) even though AI continues to dominate headlines, the need for physical innovation remains critical, and b) our region is a call option on the future of deep tech in the U.S. We continue to partner with founders building in this space (look out for two announcements soon). If you are a founder considering a partner, OVF is looking for, at a high level:
Technical depth and real defensibility: At least one of the founders usually fits the tech persona who is a domain expert in that field. Building physical and digital systems with hard-to-replicate IP.
Market and macroeconomic functions: A sizable market with a focus on an industry that will not outsource easily (e.g., semiconductors, life sciences) and supported by market/regulatory tailwinds.
Demonstrable capital efficiency, to mention a few.
If you are a founder building in deep tech, or considering your next move in this space, please reach out!