Managing Partner at Autopilot (@hqautopilot). Investor @xAI, @replit, @fluidstack, @skyryse, @AyarLabs, @RadiantNuclear, @Mach_Industries Prev: @ARKInvest
Joined March 2021
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Will Summerlin retweeted
What if you could make an aircraft safer and fundamentally change how it flies, without building a new one?
That’s the opportunity behind our partnership with @SierraNevCorp: bringing SkyOS™ to existing fleets, starting with defense applications.
We’ve already integrated and flown SkyOS on a Black Hawk in 91 days.
The future of flight is already in the air. We’re changing what it can do.
Will Summerlin retweeted
Excited to announce Replit for Government and welcome Michael Greenwald to the team!
Michael brings a wealth of experience, having previously led AWS’s public sector business. Looking forward to working together to transform how governments build and operate software.
Meet Replit for Government.
We’re powering public servants at every level of government, in the US and internationally, with super intelligence.
Now national, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments can turn shared knowledge into useful tools.
Because public service deserves better software.
Learn more: replit.com/industries/govern…
Will Summerlin retweeted
The people with the most experience running reactors choosing @RadiantNuclear. Something to be said about that...
The @USNavy has selected Radiant to deploy our Kaleidos microreactor at Naval Weapons Station Crane, Indiana.
With this selection, Radiant is now the only nuclear microreactor company with partnerships across the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The Navy has more than 70 years of safe reactor operations. It wrote the playbook on reactor safety. Earning its confidence is powerful independent validation of Kaleidos.
This milestone moves us closer to our goal: reliable, resilient nuclear power wherever the mission demands. Through our work with all three branches, we’re building a clear path from military deployment to nuclear energy at scale for government and commercial customers.
Read more details here: radiantnuclear.com/news/navy…
ALT A landscape image showing a truck hauling a large container marked "Radiant" across a desert landscape at sunset. In the sky above the scene, logos for "America's Navy," "U.S. Army," and "U.S. Air Force" are prominently displayed.
Will Summerlin retweeted
Woo! 3 for 3 baby! Today, the @USNavy selected Radiant to power critical infrastructure at Crane. There is not an organization in the world with more experience in nuclear power than the U.S. Navy. We are honored to be selected by the U.S. Navy for this important work and we thank the Navy and the Army’s Dr. Waksman for their confidence in Radiant to deliver reliable, resilient nuclear power wherever their mission demands.
Our mission of Atoms for Prosperity is today strengthened by the support of the Navy and the State of Indiana. LET’S BUILD REACTORS!
The @USNavy has selected Radiant to deploy our Kaleidos microreactor at Naval Weapons Station Crane, Indiana.
With this selection, Radiant is now the only nuclear microreactor company with partnerships across the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The Navy has more than 70 years of safe reactor operations. It wrote the playbook on reactor safety. Earning its confidence is powerful independent validation of Kaleidos.
This milestone moves us closer to our goal: reliable, resilient nuclear power wherever the mission demands. Through our work with all three branches, we’re building a clear path from military deployment to nuclear energy at scale for government and commercial customers.
Read more details here: radiantnuclear.com/news/navy…
ALT A landscape image showing a truck hauling a large container marked "Radiant" across a desert landscape at sunset. In the sky above the scene, logos for "America's Navy," "U.S. Army," and "U.S. Air Force" are prominently displayed.
Will Summerlin retweeted
(1/6) From @GoogleDeepmind’s AlphaGo to AlphaZero, we saw machines find moves that reached beyond what we’d imagined for them. No one taught them those strategies. They emerged from reinforcement learning: playing, failing, and trying again under a single binary task reward for success or failure. Inspired by them, we couldn’t help but wonder: what might a robot discover if we gave it that same freedom to learn?
That question led us to AlphaNIST. Starting tabula rasa, with that same binary reward plus only a simple control cost, a single policy solves all 20 @NIST assembly tasks at a 98.2% success rate in simulation. More surprising still, AlphaNIST can complete 10 different tasks in a row, receiving that reward only once, after all 10 are done.
Just as AlphaGo’s strategies surprised its creators, AlphaNIST discovered dexterous strategies we couldn’t have come up with ourselves.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2610.13354
Website: alpha-nist.github.io
Another way to frame this: would you rather go to Italy during shoulder season, with lower prices, better weather, and fewer crowds, or battle the crowds and heat in peak summer?
Playing different games
In venture, there are a few themes at any given time that are broadly consensus. Given how much capital is sloshing around the ecosystem, a reasonably strong team building within one of those themes will get funded.
This is the game the large platforms are playing: identify a consensus theme, back anything “good enough,” and then double down on the winners with large late-stage checks. It’s private tech beta, and that’s fine. With strong tailwinds, beta is great.
That’s not a winnable game for smaller firms. The way to play as a smaller firm, in my view, is not to figure out which direction the wind is blowing today, but where it will be blowing in 6-18 months. Identify themes before they are broadly consensus, build conviction, and partner with the best teams you can find. In most asset classes, you generate alpha by being non-consensus and right. The same is true in venture.
This is often conflated with being at an earlier-stage. Sure, it can work at pre-seed, but it can also work at growth. I’d argue that growth is actually a more attractive place to play this game, given relatively fewer capital providers and current headwinds around pro rata that hamper early-stage investors’ ability to defend or build ownership as a company becomes consensus.
Looking at our own data, our best returns have consistently come from early-growth investments that went from “non-consensus” to “broadly consensus” in 6-18 months. The rounds went from relatively uncompetitive to highly competitive and sharp-elbowed.
Win with your brain, not your brand.
Playing different games
In venture, there are a few themes at any given time that are broadly consensus. Given how much capital is sloshing around the ecosystem, a reasonably strong team building within one of those themes will get funded.
This is the game the large platforms are playing: identify a consensus theme, back anything “good enough,” and then double down on the winners with large late-stage checks. It’s private tech beta, and that’s fine. With strong tailwinds, beta is great.
That’s not a winnable game for smaller firms. The way to play as a smaller firm, in my view, is not to figure out which direction the wind is blowing today, but where it will be blowing in 6-18 months. Identify themes before they are broadly consensus, build conviction, and partner with the best teams you can find. In most asset classes, you generate alpha by being non-consensus and right. The same is true in venture.
This is often conflated with being at an earlier-stage. Sure, it can work at pre-seed, but it can also work at growth. I’d argue that growth is actually a more attractive place to play this game, given relatively fewer capital providers and current headwinds around pro rata that hamper early-stage investors’ ability to defend or build ownership as a company becomes consensus.
Looking at our own data, our best returns have consistently come from early-growth investments that went from “non-consensus” to “broadly consensus” in 6-18 months. The rounds went from relatively uncompetitive to highly competitive and sharp-elbowed.
Win with your brain, not your brand.
Will Summerlin retweeted
Full conversation here: youtu.be/YgYiF86h0yU?is=PtLN…
BREAKING: Patrick Collison just told the Valley exactly where the next Stripe gets built.
And it's not an AI lab.
Asked what he'd build if starting from scratch, Collison pointed directly at legacy vertical software — decades-old systems still running healthcare, logistics, construction, finance.
Entire industries. Still on 1990s infrastructure.
Every ambitious founder is chasing foundation models right now.
Collison is pointing at the opposite end of the stack.
The most defensible businesses often come from the places everyone else decides are too boring to touch.
Is the Valley sleeping on the biggest opportunity in software right now?
Will Summerlin retweeted
Skyryse is partnering with @BAESystemsAus to advance software-defined autonomous flight. Together, we’ll explore next-generation aircraft opportunities across piloted, optionally piloted and autonomous flight. bit.ly/4AqsDvG
Will Summerlin retweeted
One lesson it took me way too long to internalize:
Cool technology is not valuable in and of itself.
Cantos founder and managing partner @IanRountree explains why a technological breakthrough does not automatically justify a massive valuation.
“What happens if you have two fusion energy companies succeed? … Why are you both going to be worth $10 trillion? You’re going to be in a price war, potentially.”
RT @RadiantNuclear: Thanks for having on to discuss the Janus program and our $750M award! @CNBC @torishiv cnbc.com/video/2026/08/27/to…
🚀🚀🚀
The @USArmy has awarded Radiant $750 million to deliver 15 Kaleidos microreactors through the Janus program, one of the largest contracts @DIU_x has issued to date.
The Army launched the Janus Program to strengthen the energy resilience of military installations and mission-critical infrastructure. Radiant was chosen after extensive evaluation of reactor design, technical maturity, manufacturing readiness, deployment strategy, and commercial viability. Radiant’s 15 microreactors will enable the Army to deploy nuclear power across multiple locations. In tandem, the operational data acquired through the Program will accelerate commercial deployments across a global footprint of commercial customers.
Learn more: radiantnuclear.com/
Will Summerlin retweeted
The @USArmy has awarded Radiant $750 million to deliver 15 Kaleidos microreactors through the Janus program, one of the largest contracts @DIU_x has issued to date.
The Army launched the Janus Program to strengthen the energy resilience of military installations and mission-critical infrastructure. Radiant was chosen after extensive evaluation of reactor design, technical maturity, manufacturing readiness, deployment strategy, and commercial viability. Radiant’s 15 microreactors will enable the Army to deploy nuclear power across multiple locations. In tandem, the operational data acquired through the Program will accelerate commercial deployments across a global footprint of commercial customers.
Learn more: radiantnuclear.com/
AI researchers in SF are doomsday prepping in anticipation of AGI.
The average Fortune 500 employee has used Microsoft copilot a few times.
Wildly varied views of the future.
Will Summerlin retweeted
Incredibly important (and well written) article that cuts through the hype. Nevermind data centers, American hospitals, grocery stores, warehouses, army bases and more need an energy upgrade. @RadiantNuclear recognized this long ago. Hats off to the team for the tireless, diligent work of making it a safe, practical, near-term reality.
IRR (because of the drawdown structure) makes comparisons to the S&P 500 a bit more nuanced than MOIC.
That said, you shouldn’t invest in a venture fund unless you believe it can return >5x MOIC and >30% net IRR.
