Jack Selby has stakes in Etched.
That alone would be a good headline for a venture firm in Phoenix. It’s better because Etched is riding the wave. Valued at $5 billion, the Nvidia rival announced this week that TSM actually made its first chip. Earlier this year, mind you. The startup is four years old and it wants to ship systems powered by this new silicon to customers later this summer.
Simple plan.
Execution? Not so much. Like everyone else chasing silicon, Etched has to fight for limited capacity. TSMC’s factories in Taiwan are maxed out. Scaling production will be tough.
Copper Sky Capital gets it.
One of Etched’s early backers, they’re banking on a specific fix: manufacturing in Arizona. When Selby’s firm invested in Etched’s Series A two years ago—the deal raised $120 million—he didn’t just bring money. He brought an allocation strategy built on a promise. Help them reshore.
It works.
Selby is the man behind Copper Sky. Before founding the Phoenix-based VC in 2021, he spent time at PayPal. He also managed money for Peter Thiel’s family office. That gives him range. But his real play here was local. The first $115M fund chased startups in Arizona and the Southwest only. His logic? Coastal companies in New York or California are grossly overpriced. They are inflated assets. Selby wanted to bridge that gap. Take hardware companies from the Coast and move their physical production to Arizona.
“The company clearly understood our connectivity to the local TSMC GIGGFAB”
That access is why the check got written. Etched isn’t an easy startup to get into. It’s a hot tier-1 tech name. Selby leveraged his board seat at the Arizona Commerce Authority to open that door. He helps recruit out-of-state manufacturers to set up shop in the desert every day.
Copper Sky isn’t strictly regional anymore. The focus has widened. They look at nontraditional venture hubs across the US now. But the thesis holds. If you make hardware—especially if you work in defense—and you can put that manufacturing in Arizona, Selby is listening.
The rest is logistics.
