UP.Partners

We are an early stage venture capital firm that partners with entrepreneurs building companies that support multi-dimensional mobility.

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

Today we're releasing our annual report: The Kinetic Age 2026, formerly The Moving World Report. It’s our most ambitious one yet.

AI is moving beyond the screen and flowing into factories, vehicles, energy grids, defense systems, and national strategies, triggering the largest industrial reorganization since the post-war era, and the biggest single-year capital deployment in the history of capitalism.

This year’s report defines eight forces reshaping the global economy from autonomous transportation equity to America’s race to reindustrialize.

We invite you to use it as a guide and share it with those who may find it as useful as we do.

Welcome to The Kinetic Age.

https://t.co/JNuNXFlhGF

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

There’s been a rupture in the rules-based international order. As a result, middle-power countries are forming new coalitions to secure sovereignty across four major industries:

1. AI
2. Energy
3. Space
4. Manufacturing

Nations are building domestic AI stacks to reduce dependence on U.S. hyperscalers, investing in chipmaking and industrial capacity to compete on their own terms, and forging new allegiances to secure the resources and infrastructure they can't yet build alone.

Meanwhile, electrification is disrupting the historic power dynamics between petrostates and the nations that depend on their oil. And the LEO economy is raising new questions of sovereignty for nations that have long depended on others for satellite access.

Download The Kinetic Age and head to Section 2 for a deep dive into how nations across the globe are reorganizing their economies and allegiances in response to recent geopolitical moves: https://t.co/JNuNXFkJR7

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

We’ve been working on something really special that we’re excited to share with you today: https://t.co/Dvd40ejmCz has entered into a strategic relationship with TWG Global.

What that means is, with TWG Global’s support, we’ll be expanding our platform and resources to do more of what we do best: backing entrepreneurs and companies rebuilding the physical world through hardware and software.

TWG Global is a diversified holding company whose portfolio includes Guggenheim Investments, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Cadillac Formula 1 Team. Their trust means the world to us.

And we’re still https://t.co/Dvd40ejmCz. But we’re now better equipped to back and support founders from seed stage all the way through IPO.

Learn more about our plans here: https://t.co/aAyz0F51z1

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

We live with science fiction, but it’s far from evenly distributed. To analyze this, we used three lenses:

1. Access: Geography and income still determine who lives in the future and who waits for it. 84% of humanity has never interacted with AI.
2. Unequal benefits and harms: Innovation is not neutral. Productivity gains and wealth creation accrue disproportionately, and so do job displacement, surveillance risks, and environmental costs.
3. Geopolitical gaps: In several critical industries, the frontier is no longer centered in the United States. The map of technological leadership is being redrawn as products develop and scale faster elsewhere.

We talk about the technological era as if it's a singular moment. The reality is we’re living in multiple tech timelines at once.

This is where The Kinetic Age 2026 kicks off. Read the full report here: https://t.co/JNuNXFlhGF

[Will Phillips @willsclips_]

Most venture capital is chasing software and AI.

But some of the most important companies are being built in the physical world.

I went behind the scenes with @UPPartnersVC to see it firsthand.

In this episode:
- @SkydioHQ ($110M Series F, $4.4B valuation) building autonomous drones for defense and public safety
- @RangeEnergy ($23.5M Series A) electrifying truck trailers in the $900 billion freight industry
- UnitX ($46M Series B) using AI to detect defects in manufacturing at scale

New INSIDE STARTUPS episode live now.

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

Physical AI is moving from concept to necessity, with global labor dynamics accelerating this shift.

In a recent article in @FortuneMagazine, Ally Warson shared her perspective on how robotics are stepping into roles that are increasingly challenging and dangerous for humans to fill.

“The reality is, no one wants to do these jobs,” Warson told Fortune. “There are something like 600,000 unfilled jobs in the industrial space. No one’s raising their hand and signing up for it.”

This thesis is reflected in portfolio companies like Noble Machines and WakeCap, where AI and robotics are already helping reduce risk and improve outcomes on job sites.

“The economics works the most for jobs where human lives are at risk,” Warson said.

Read the full piece here: https://t.co/HrrDtM5oMK

[UP.Summit @UPSummitVC]

At the UP.Summit, Andrew Duggleby, Co-Founder & CTO of @VenusAerospace, shared how rotating detonation engines could represent the first true architectural leap in aerospace propulsion in decades.

https://t.co/qGBgw193Q1

#Aerospace #Innovation #Hypersonic #SpaceTech

[UP.Summit @UPSummitVC]

Traditional factories are optimized for one product. In today’s fast-paced business environment, is there a way for companies to build multiple products on the same hardware?

Enter @Divergent3D

Watch Kevin Czinger's UP.Summit presentation here: https://t.co/0iXv3ZR1Qe

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

We’re proud to share that @BeyondMathLtd, an https://t.co/Dvd40eiON1 portfolio company, has completed their Seed Round at $18.5 million.

Founded in 2022 by AI industry veterans Alan Patterson and Darren Garvey, BeyondMath has developed the world’s largest foundational physics AI model, which is capable of simulating complex physical phenomena, from aerodynamics to thermal management.

BeyondMath takes a fundamentally new approach to design with a foundational AI model trained directly on first-principles physics. This enables engineering-grade simulations to be created in minutes rather than hours or days, delivering results up to 1000x faster than traditional supercomputing methods.

A key example of this impact is STRATA, a $19 million, 3-year project with @honeywell, where BeyondMath enables the simulation of thousands of iterations for complex aircraft components in seconds rather than days.

The funding from this Seed Round will be used to scale up the commercial deployment of BeyondMath’s generative physics technology and increase its research capacity.

Congrats to the BeyondMath team on this milestone! Join the waitlist to try their new interactive demo at https://t.co/F1QhPbNVjB and read the full press release here: https://t.co/Np4YKzLhgC

#BeyondMath #DeepTech #ArtificialIntelligence #Engineering #Innovation #AI #Aerospace #Physics

[UP.Summit @UPSummitVC]

Why is maritime autonomy moving so slowly?

At UP.Summit, Joe Turner (@HavocAi_USV), shared his view on what it will take to scale autonomous systems in the maritime domain and why the bottleneck isn’t the vessel, it’s software.

Full session here:
https://t.co/SdmKHeMpwi

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

Who’s moving mobility forward this month?

The February 2026 edition of UP.Pulse is here, our monthly look at the latest momentum across the https://t.co/Dvd40eiON1 portfolio.

This month’s highlights span new leadership, electric aviation partnerships, AI-powered logistics tools, and platform launches moving from beta to market — all displays of progress from concept to scale.

Take a look at the February edition of the UP.Pulse to see how our portfolio companies continue to shape the future of mobility.

#UPPulse #FutureOfMobility #Innovation #VentureCapital #AI #Aviation #CleanTech #DeepTech #Mobility #Startups #Tech #MobilityTech

[UP.Summit @UPSummitVC]

At the UP.Summit, Adam Bry, CEO of @SkydioHQ, shared how drones are evolving from niche tools into core physical infrastructure.

Watch the full session on the UP.Summit YouTube page here: https://t.co/cTYg0m4wfx 

#UPSummit #Skydio #Drones #Infrastructure #Aerospace

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

We’re excited to announce a key product launch from one of our portfolio companies — @InfinitForm.

InfinitForm is for engineers who want to spend more time on high-value innovation and less time on rework.

Too often, manufacturability issues only surface after simulations are complete, prototypes are built, or suppliers push back. This is driven by a structural disconnect between design and manufacturing — separate teams, separate incentives, and separate toolchains.

InfinitForm changes that with an AI-powered engineering design platform which cuts design cycles by up to 80% to shorten time-to-production.

After months of private beta testing with advanced engineering teams at companies like NASA, Google X, and Yamaha Motor Co, InfinitForm is now available to engineers who are ready to eliminate costly late-stage rework and compress design cycles from days to hours.

Read the full press release here: https://t.co/7GLV2RHkwq

#Engineering #Manufacturing #AI #ProductDevelopment #InfinitForm

[UP.Summit @UPSummitVC]

Carrie von Muench, Co-Founder & COO of Pacific Fusion, made a clear case at the UP.Summit for why fusion energy is no longer a distant science experiment, but an engineering problem with a near-term path to reality.

Access the full presentation here: https://t.co/M3tAZL8uAs

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

New Mexico is building something big!

This week, the New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC) released its report on the Strategic Venture Capital Program (SVCP), the largest regional venture program in the United States, and how it’s driving real economic impact by aligning Silicon Valley capital with New Mexico’s innovation strengths.

The report highlights how venture investing in advanced energy, deep tech, and aerospace & defense is helping companies scale during their industrialization moment, supporting more than $2B in projected economic impact and creating thousands of high-quality jobs.

https://t.co/Dvd40eiON1 is proud to collaborate with the New Mexico SIC to support economic expansion in the state. Through UP.Abundance, our New Mexico Investment Strategy, we’re proud to partner with pioneering founders and innovative investors to accelerate the future of mobility and energy, to date investing in seven companies to create 300+ jobs by the end of 2026.

Read the full report and see how New Mexico is partnering with global innovators to turn capital into real-world outcomes: https://t.co/UftkJSv6AP

[UP.Partners @UPPartnersVC]

Who’s setting the pace for mobility to start the year?

The January edition of UP.Pulse is live, our monthly look at the momentum building across the https://t.co/Dvd40eiON1 portfolio.

From AI-powered design breakthroughs and autonomy milestones to historic flight achievements, NASA partnerships, and next-generation aviation systems, this month’s UP.Pulse shows how our companies are pushing real-world deployment forward.

Explore the January edition and see what’s making headlines to kick off 2026.