Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
UK Startups and Innovation
7JUN

PhysicsX hits $2.4bn on Temasek cash

3 min read
10:09UTC

PhysicsX closed a $300m Series C at a $2.4bn valuation, the week's largest private round, led by Singapore's sovereign fund with no UK state vehicle on the cap table.

← Back to OQC's £260m sets European quantum recordJump to analysis ↓
TechnologyDeveloping
Key takeaway

Singapore's Temasek led the week's largest UK round; no British state vehicle made the cap table.

PhysicsX, a London company founded in 2019 by former Formula 1 engineer Robin Tuluie and Jacomo Corbo, closed a $300m Series C on 8 June at a $2.4bn valuation, more than double its prior round 1. Singapore's sovereign fund Temasek led; M&G Investments and Intrepid Growth Partners came in new, with Atomico, Nvidia, Siemens, Applied Materials and General Catalyst following on.

PhysicsX builds AI that replaces the engineering simulations carmakers, aircraft makers and chip designers normally run over hours or days, collapsing them to seconds. It was the week's largest private round, and no UK state vehicle appears on the cap table. That absence has become the pattern. Orbital Industries pulled $50m a fortnight ago with no British lead either .

Britain's biggest rounds are now underwritten by Singapore, Silicon Valley and allied national-security funds, not by the £6.6bn the British Business Bank has to spend. The state development bank sits a tier below where the marquee rounds actually close, so the upside on the country's largest scale-ups accrues to foreign cap tables. A founder reading the cap table learns where the cheque that clears a nine-figure round actually comes from, and it is not Sheffield or London.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Engineering simulations, running a car engine design through millions of virtual crash and heat tests, used to take a supercomputer hours. PhysicsX has built software that uses AI to do the same thing in seconds, which means engineers can test ten times more designs in the same day. Carmakers, aircraft builders and chip manufacturers all benefit. On 8 June, the company raised $300m, putting its total value at $2.4bn. The biggest cheque came from Temasek, Singapore's state investment fund. No UK government fund took part. Singapore's money is backing a British company because its AI tools connect directly to Asian manufacturing supply chains where Temasek already has investments. The UK's new British Business Bank mandate could theoretically have invested, but AI simulation for manufacturing is not in its priority sectors.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Three factors explain why Singapore's Temasek rather than any UK state vehicle led this round.

Temasek's investment thesis for PhysicsX sits in its advanced manufacturing vertical, where it holds positions in semiconductor capital equipment and automotive supply chains across Southeast Asia. PhysicsX's existing Siemens and Applied Materials customer relationships plug directly into that portfolio as a cross-sell tool, a strategic logic no UK sovereign fund had yet developed.

The British Business Bank's expanded mandate from April 2026 specifically authorised it to lead venture rounds up to £60m, but only in eight designated priority sectors. The eight sectors run from life sciences and clean energy to quantum and defence, and AI simulation for industrial applications falls outside every one of them. That sector exclusion left PhysicsX's round structurally outside what the BBB could lead.

The UK's Patient Capital Review of 2017, published by HM Treasury, identified the structural failure: UK institutional investors (insurance and pension funds) allocate under 1% of assets to venture capital versus 5-10% for US and Singaporean sovereign funds. M&G's entry as a new investor suggests the retail-and-pensions asset manager is finally moving toward the Patient Capital Review's recommendation, but M&G came in at a minority position, not as a lead.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    Continued absence of UK state capital from deep-tech Series C rounds above £200m means equity upside from the most capital-intensive British innovations accrues offshore.

  • Opportunity

    M&G's new investor entry signals that a UK institutional investor is piloting direct venture positions; if the PhysicsX bet returns, it could catalyse broader insurance and pension fund movement toward UK deep-tech.

Sources:Bloomberg
Mentions:Temasek →Atomico →Nvidia →Siemens →Orbital Industries →British Business Bank →Gartner →London →Dealroom →Palantir →Science →Singapore →PhysicsX →Canada Pension Plan Investment Board →Jacomo Corbo →Intrepid Growth Partners →General Catalyst →Robin Tuluie →Applied Materials →
First Reported In

Update #8 · London startup raises Britain's own AI model

Bloomberg· 14 Jun 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Orbital's $50m raise has no UK lead
PhysicsX's no-UK-lead cap table continues the pattern set by Orbital Industries, which pulled $50m a fortnight earlier with no British lead investor.
Occurred 28 May 2026
Read story →
This Event
PhysicsX hits $2.4bn on Temasek cash
Britain's biggest scale-up rounds keep closing without a domestic lead investor, so the upside on its largest companies accrues to foreign cap tables while UK state capital sits a tier below.
Led to
CuspAI raising $400m on Bezos money
PhysicsX's $300m Temasek-led round established the pattern of US/Asian capital leading the UK's largest AI deeptech rounds, which CuspAI's reported raise continues.
Occurred 20 Jun 2026
Read story →
AI takes record 44% of UK equity market
PhysicsX's $300m Series C exemplified the AI-concentration barbell the BBB tracker now confirms nationally.
Occurred 1 Jul 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
EQT
EQT
EQT was reported on 3 July to be in advanced talks for a further CuspAI stake on behalf of the EU's Scaleup Europe Fund, but does not appear on the round CuspAI closed. Whether Europe's own sovereign vehicle secured a position, was outbid, or withdrew is unresolved.
Invest-NL
Invest-NL
Invest-NL joined CuspAI's $450m round as a new state investor alongside Britain's Sovereign AI Unit, named in the company's own 20 July announcement. Any framing of British state capital arriving must also credit Dutch capital with the same access, since Invest-NL took the opportunity too.
Kleiner Perkins and Bezos Expeditions
Kleiner Perkins and Bezos Expeditions
Kleiner Perkins and Bezos Expeditions co-led CuspAI's $450m Series B at a $2.6bn valuation, a figure Lowdown has now reported three times since June. Silicon Valley and a family office, not a UK investor, set the price of Britain's highest-profile materials-AI company.
British Business Bank
British Business Bank
British Business Bank proposed a £100m debt fund for aerospace suppliers at Farnborough on 20 July, co-designed with Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN Aerospace. It is the Bank's first non-equity instrument this cycle, aimed at suppliers who can service a loan but have no equity story, though the structure remains unfinalised.
Institute of Physics
Institute of Physics
The Institute has long argued STFC's national-laboratory infrastructure, not its grant programmes, is the binding constraint on UK physics output, and warns mothballing capacity like Clara removes capability that cannot be rebuilt on a four-year cycle. It represents the discovery-science community absorbing the reallocation the Bank's equity cheques do not touch.
Helsing
Helsing
The Munich-headquartered defence-AI firm chose Plymouth over Continental sites for a £350m manufacturing plant building underwater surveillance gliders, alongside its record raise. Its choice of postcode signals confidence in UK manufacturing capacity for defence hardware even as it looks abroad for the capital financing that hardware.