TDK Ventures’ Nicolas Sauvage focuses on AI infrastructure, robotics, and future bottlenecks

Mon, 04 May 2026 12:32:00 +0200

Nicolas Sauvage, founder of TDK Ventures, is building an investment strategy around what he calls the less glamorous but critical layers of artificial intelligence. Speaking at a StrictlyVC event, Sauvage explained his belief that the most valuable opportunities become obvious only after about four years, which has guided his firm’s approach since its launch in 2019. Managing roughly $500 million across four funds, TDK Ventures has focused on identifying future bottlenecks in emerging technologies before they become widely recognized.

One prominent example is Groq, an AI chip company focused on inference—the computational work required when AI systems respond to queries. Sauvage invested early, before the generative AI boom made such infrastructure investments more obvious. He saw long-term demand growing due to increasing AI usage, especially as AI agents now perform complex, multi-step tasks requiring repeated computations.

Beyond chips, Sauvage is investing in physical AI, particu