In this episode of the Semiconductor Leadership Podcast, host Salah Nasri sits down with Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures, for a deep dive into how the world’s leading corporate venture capital firm identifies deep tech winners years before they become obvious.
EXCLUSIVE: This podcast was filmed just before the $20 billion announcement between Groq and Nvidia
Nicolas shares how TDK Ventures invests at the seed stage in deep tech, semiconductors, energy storage, sensing, electrification, and AI infrastructure, and why conviction, founder–market fit, and unit economics matter more than hype or who else is investing. This conversation explores why most VCs struggle with deep tech timelines—and how TDK Ventures builds billion-dollar businesses by backing founders who are right years ahead of the market.
You’ll learn:
How TDK Ventures evaluates early-stage deep tech startups
Why seed investing is about founder insight, not risk avoidance
The most overrated and underrated VC metrics
Why unit economics are critical in clean tech, hardware, and AI
How corporate venture capital (CVC) should be structured for exploration vs. exploitation
Why India, Africa, Australia, and other regions are underpriced deep tech markets
How energy, electrification, semiconductors, and AI are converging
What founders should include in their pitch—but usually don’t
Whether you’re a startup founder, VC, CVC leader, semiconductor
professional, or deep tech investor, this episode delivers practical insights, first-principles thinking, and hard-earned lessons from one of the most respected voices in corporate venture capital.
Subscribe to the Semiconductor Leadership Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts for more conversations with global technology and investment leaders.
00:00 – Welcome to the Semiconductor Leadership Podcast
00:51 – Introducing Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures
03:17 – How TDK Ventures finds “King of the Hill” startups
05:37 – Why seed stage matters most in deep tech
07:51 – The most important diligence signal in venture capital
11:03 – The one KPI that actually matters: unit economics
12:56 – Why India is one of the best places for deep tech
16:10 – Why 2026 will be a historic year for venture investing
19:46 – What great Corporate VC governance really means
25:51 – Why predicting the future is the wrong way to invest
28:00 – How to power AI when lithium and materials run out
31:24 – How TDK Ventures was born
35:39 – What “Scaling Impact Scalers” really means
37:12 – Why deep tech timelines break traditional VC models
41:14 – The truth about power laws in venture capital
54:16 – The convergence of AI, energy, and electrification
