Mike Schroepfer

Founder & Managing Partner at Gigascale Capital

Reviewed Updated Jun 1, 2026

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Location Menlo Park, California
Check Size Unknown
Last Verified Investment Heron Power (Series B) — Feb 18, 2026
Social @schrep LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a early-stage
Sector Focus
climate-tech energy fusion nuclear grid-infrastructure critical-minerals industrial deeptech

Background

Mike Schroepfer is a venture capitalist and the founder of Gigascale Capital, an early-stage climate-tech VC firm that announced a $250 million Fund I in June 2026 12. Before founding Gigascale, Schroepfer served as Chief Technology Officer of Meta (formerly Facebook), where he led the company’s engineering and infrastructure organization 1.

Schroepfer launched Gigascale in 2023 as a personal investment vehicle focused on climate technology, building a portfolio of more than 25 companies before raising the firm’s first institutional fund in 2026 3.

Stated Thesis

Schroepfer’s publicly stated investing thesis centers on what he calls “rebuilding the physical economy” — backing companies that win on cost and performance, with climate benefits as a downstream consequence of mass adoption 12. He has explicitly distanced his approach from values-driven climate investing:

“Climate impact won’t come from asking the world to adopt worse systems for virtuous reasons. It comes when a different technical approach makes the cleaner system also simpler, more scalable, and cost competitive.” 2

He frames the current moment as one of severe supply constraints — particularly in power, critical materials, and grid infrastructure — driven by AI compute demand and broader electrification 12.

Inferred Thesis

Based on the publicly disclosed Gigascale portfolio (small sample of 25+ portfolio companies):

  • Stage distribution: Early-stage (seed and Series A) deeptech, per firm self-description 4.
  • Sector concentration: Heavy weighting toward energy generation (fusion, nuclear, baseload), grid/power electronics, critical-mineral supply chains, and industrial automation. Disclosed names include Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Xcimer, Radiant, Arbor Energy, Heron Power, Form Energy, Dioxycle, Mill, and Solcoa 14.
  • Founder profile: Strong preference for technical operators from at-scale companies (Tesla alumni, Thiel Fellows, national-lab researchers). Specific examples: Drew Baglino (ex-Tesla SVP, now Heron Power) and Hooman Nezhad (Thiel Fellow, Solcoa) 1.
  • Geographic focus: Predominantly US-based deeptech.

Sample size is small relative to the full portfolio; percentages are not computed until more portfolio disclosure is available.

Portfolio

See Gigascale Capital firm portfolio for the consolidated list. Schroepfer is the founding partner on all Gigascale investments.

Company Date Stage Source
Commonwealth Fusion Systems 2025-08-28 Series B2 ($863M) — participant 5
Xcimer Energy 2024-06-04 Series A ($100M) — participant 6
Radiant Nuclear 2025-05 Series C ($165M close) — participant 12
Arbor Energy 2025-10-21 Series A ($55M) — participant 7
Heron Power 2026-02-18 Series B ($140M) — participant 8
Form Energy 2024-10-10 Series F ($405M) — participant 9
Dioxycle 2023-07-26 Series A ($17M) — participant 10
Mill 2023+ Participant (round date unresolvable) 11
Solcoa 2025+ Participant (round date unresolvable) 1

In Their Own Words

“Climate impact won’t come from asking the world to adopt worse systems for virtuous reasons. It comes when a different technical approach makes the cleaner system also simpler, more scalable, and cost competitive.” 2

“The world needs more power, more resilient supply chains, more critical materials, and better infrastructure. In many cases, the question for the best companies is no longer whether demand exists. It’s how fast they can supply it.” 2

“Solar went from 40 gigawatts a year to 600 in a decade because it got cheaper, not because it got more virtuous.” — on the firm’s adoption-first thesis 1

Schroepfer has also said that bring-your-own power “is going to be a competitive advantage over time” for energy-intensive industries 1.

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found at time of profile creation.

Sources

  1. TechCrunch, “Zigging when most are zagging, ex-Meta CTO raises $250M climate fund,” June 1, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/01/zigging-when-most-are-zagging-ex-meta-cto-raises-250m-climate-fund/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. BusinessWire, “Gigascale Capital Raises $250 Million Fund to Back Companies Rebuilding the Physical Economy for Climate Impact,” June 1, 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260601079849/en/Gigascale-Capital-Raises-$250-Million-Fund-to-Back-Companies-Rebuilding-the-Physical-Economy-for-Climate-Impact↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Axios, “Gigascale Capital announces $250 million fund for rebuilding physical economy,” June 1, 2026. https://www.axios.com/2026/06/01/gigascale-capital-schroepfer-250-million-fund↩

  4. ESG Today, “Gigascale Capital Launches $250 Million Early-Stage Climate Tech Fund,” June 1, 2026. https://www.esgtoday.com/gigascale-capital-launches-250-million-early-stage-climate-tech-fund/↩↩

  5. Commonwealth Fusion Systems press release, “Commonwealth Fusion Systems Raises $863 Million Series B2 Round to Accelerate the Commercialization of Fusion Energy,” August 28, 2025. https://www.cfs.energy/news-and-media/commonwealth-fusion-systems-raises-863-million-series-b2-round-to-accelerate-the-commercialization-of-fusion-energy/↩

  6. Xcimer Energy press release, “$100 Million Raised to Advance Inertial Fusion Energy Toward Commercialization,” June 4, 2024. https://xcimer.energy/xcimer-raises-100-million-to-put-inertial-fusion-energy-on-path-to-commercialization/↩

  7. BusinessWire, “Arbor Energy Raises $55 Million Series A to Scale Abundant Clean Power for the AI Economy,” October 21, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251021233233/en/Arbor-Energy-Raises-$55-Million-Series-A-to-Scale-Abundant-Clean-Power-for-the-AI-Economy↩

  8. TechCrunch, “Heron Power raises $140M to ramp production of grid-altering tech,” February 18, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/18/heron-power-raises-140m-to-ramp-production-of-grid-altering-tech/↩

  9. Form Energy press release, “Form Energy Secures $405M in Series F Financing to Expand Iron-Air Battery Business and Operations,” October 10, 2024. https://formenergy.com/form-energy-secures-405m-in-series-f-financing-to-expand-iron-air-battery-business-and-operations/↩

  10. Dioxycle press release, “Dioxycle raises $17m to turn CO2 emissions into sustainable chemicals,” July 26, 2023. https://dioxycle.com/dioxycle-raises-17m-to-turn-co%e2%82%82-emissions-into-sustainable-chemicals/↩

  11. Gigascale Capital portfolio profile, “Mill: Recycling Food Waste,” accessed June 2026. https://gigascale.com/profiles/mill-changing-food-waste-habits/↩

  12. Radiant Nuclear blog, “Radiant closes $165 Million Series C with additional funding from Giant Ventures, StepStone, ARK Venture Fund, and others,” May 2025. https://www.radiantnuclear.com/blog/series-c-close/↩