The batch where AI grew a body.

YC’s own taxonomy counts 19 manufacturing-and-robotics companies and 6 defense companies. The range spans Libra Robotics building for solar construction, Salem Robotics for hazardous inspections, and Isengard Industries for mass-produced strike and counter-drone systems.

If model access continues to broaden, value shifts toward the systems that make intelligence reliable in the field. Sensing, control, manufacturing, deployment, and trust become part of the product—not implementation details.

Computable offers liquidity in weekly GPU-hours. Touchmark is building a market for future inference capacity. Stoa calls itself the market behind AI hardware.

For time-bound capacity, the right to use compute can be transacted before the compute is consumed. If durable markets form, they create a potential third layer around AI infrastructure: not only machines and applications, but the markets that price and allocate capacity and hardware.

Ten public taglines describe an AI-native firm, agency, practice, carrier, or brokerage. Billow AI Labs describes itself as an AI-native accounting firm built to replace the Big Four; Last Accounting Company calls itself an agent-native accounting firm; Florin is an insurance carrier with zero underwriters.

The commercial ambition is larger than a software seat: deliver the finished service, not the tool an incumbent uses to provide it. If the model works, the opportunity extends to delivery of the service itself. Distribution, regulation, operations, and trust then become part of the moat.

Physical-systems companies take responsibility for work in the field. Compute-market companies price and allocate capacity. AI-native firms deliver the service themselves. Each model owns more of the customer outcome, and each carries a different execution burden.

S26 is therefore a broader bet than more AI software. Which model proves durable remains uncertain; that is the case for broad exposure across the batch rather than one narrow expression of the trend.

The S26 Access Fund is our Summer 2026 Demo Day Fund. We review the full batch, select the companies that fit our thesis, and pair that judgment with the access required to build a broad portfolio. For LPs who want exposure to S26 without choosing the winning layer or a handful of companies in advance, the fund brings that portfolio together in one vehicle.