Analysis
Jack Selby, a longtime managing director at Peter Thiel's family office Thiel Capital and a former PayPal executive, secured an allocation in AI chip startup Etched's Series A two years ago through a distinctive pitch: a promise to help the company eventually reshore its chip fabrication to Arizona, TechCrunch reported July 2, 2026. Selby's Phoenix-based venture firm, Copper Sky, founded in 2021, invested in Etched's $120 million Series A at the time -- a bet that has since paid off dramatically as Etched's valuation has climbed to roughly $5 billion.
The payoff arrived concretely this week: Etched announced that TSMC manufactured its first chip earlier this year, with plans to ship systems powered by that chip to customers later this summer -- a genuine hardware milestone that separates Etched from the many AI chip startups that remain years away from actual silicon in customers' hands. Selby told TechCrunch that Copper Sky's Arizona connections, particularly proximity to TSMC's local Gigafab, gave the fund a distinct value proposition Etched's founders clearly understood and valued when allocating scarce Series A capital.
Copper Sky's strategy represents a geography-driven specialization that's become increasingly viable as US semiconductor reshoring accelerates: rather than competing purely on capital or brand with larger, generalist Silicon Valley funds, Copper Sky built a thesis specifically around Arizona's growing role as a US chip manufacturing hub, giving it a genuine access advantage for hardware and deep-tech founders looking to build domestic supply chains.
The firm is now raising a $300 million second fund, according to a regulatory filing, with Selby indicating Copper Sky plans to expand its focus beyond the Southwest to nontraditional venture hubs nationwide, while continuing to prioritize hardware and defense-sector companies that can establish Arizona manufacturing operations specifically.
For founders building hardware or defense-tech companies with a genuine domestic manufacturing angle, Copper Sky's Etched allocation is a concrete example of how a geography-specific relationship and thesis can win access to a hot round over larger, better-capitalized generalist funds. For LPs, a four-year-old fund's early conviction bet paying off this visibly -- turning a $120 million Series A allocation into exposure to a $5 billion company with real shipping hardware -- is exactly the kind of differentiated-access track record that should make raising a larger second fund considerably easier.
What to watch: how Copper Sky's $300 million second fund performs relative to its first, whether other geography-specific specialist funds emerge around additional US semiconductor reshoring hubs, and whether Etched's shipped TSMC-made chips deliver on performance claims once they reach customers this summer.
