Investing in the Future of AI Infrastructure: Why We Invested in Phasic Energy

June 2, 2026 – New York, NY

Every major technology shift creates pressure on infrastructure. The AI era is no different.

​

As artificial intelligence scales globally, compute is becoming one of the defining infrastructure constraints of the next decade. Next-generation chips are delivering extraordinary performance, but they are also creating new demands on power, thermal management, and data center design.

​

That is the opportunity Phasic Energy is pursuing.

​

Founded by Augie Smith, Phasic is reinventing cooling for the next-

generation chips powering the AI revolution. The company is building heat exchangers using proprietary AI-derived geometries and metal 3D printing, creating a new approach to thermal infrastructure for an era where chip performance and cooling efficiency are increasingly inseparable.

​

Our conviction in Phasic started well before the company itself.

​

Augie has had a long-standing relationship with Lightning Capital, Jay, and Jock over many years. Through that relationship, we had the opportunity to see how deeply and consistently he thought about infrastructure, energy systems, and the physical constraints that would shape the next era of computing.

​

This was not an opportunistic idea created to match a market trend. It was a problem Augie became deeply passionate about solving long before most people were focused on the strain AI would place on global infrastructure. Over time, that conviction evolved into Phasic’s near-term wedge: rethinking cooling for AI silicon.

​

That is what brought Lightning into the company.

​

As AI models become more capable, the infrastructure required to support them becomes more complex. The bottleneck is no longer just compute availability. It is power density, thermal efficiency, cooling performance, and the ability for data centers to support the next generation of chips at scale.

Phasic is building directly into that constraint.

What stood out to us most was the combination of founder conviction, technical depth, and market timing. The best founders are often obsessed with problems before markets fully recognize them. They see structural shifts early, develop unique insight through years of thinking, and stay relentless in pursuing solutions others overlook.

​

That is what we saw in Augie.

​

While waste heat recovery remains part of the longer arc of Phasic’s vision, the immediate opportunity is clear: AI infrastructure needs a new cooling layer designed for the performance, density, and efficiency demands of modern silicon.

​

At Lightning Capital, we continue to focus on what we call the “AI Ripple Effects,” the entirely new set of infrastructure, operational, industrial, and software opportunities being created by the rapid adoption of AI across the global economy.

​

We believe thermal infrastructure will become one of the defining categories of that shift.

​

And we are excited to partner with Augie and the Phasic team as they help build that future.