Bringing Moonshots to Market
X is partnering with an independent venture firm, Series X, to fund some of our best moonshots as new startups.
Two years ago we faced a counterintuitive problem at X: what do we do when promising moonshots have greater potential for impact if they can operate outside of Alphabet?
Like a modern day Bell Labs, our goal at X is to invent and launch breakthrough technologies that make the world radically better. We start by evaluating hundreds of audacious ideas every year. From that massive funnel, we aim to produce a few truly world-changing moonshots each decade, like Google Brain, the Waymo autonomous driver and Wing drones for package delivery. It’s a numbers game, built on a constant process of rapid prototyping, taking smart risks, iteration, and dispassionate assessment. We filter based on evidence, letting only those efforts that pass the pressure tests continue through the process.
We evaluate hundreds of radical ideas every year and aim to produce a few world-changing moonshots each decade.
As we entered our fourteenth year in 2024, our cohort of moonshots was looking especially strong. Multiple teams had solved their core technical risks and were ready to go to market. But how? In the past, successful moonshots in this stage would move into Google, like Google Brain, or become new Alphabet companies, like Wing. Yet this cohort of projects waiting to graduate from X were focused on industry-specific areas, like our Tidal aquaculture moonshot, which thematically didn’t make sense to become parts of Google or Alphabet. Keeping them inside X indefinitely wasn't an option either, since our mandate is early stage innovation, not market scale-up. In short, we needed a new exit path.
Together with Alphabet, we decided to systemize the process of spinning out X moonshots in fields that don’t make sense to remain inside Google, but are good for the world and have the potential to become strong independent businesses backed by market-based capital. Alphabet would retain a significant ownership stake to capture potential upside, and our moonshots would have greater opportunity to scale as startups.
The UFO on Sand Hill Road
X has always focused on ways to systematize innovation. As we designed this new growth path, we wanted to build in a level of efficiency, speed and repeatability. Rather than treating every spinout as a completely new venture, we wanted to find an investing partner who would back multiple X spinouts as a portfolio strategy.
Instead of the proverbial rocketships that traditional venture capital back, the deep tech moonshots coming out of X look more like UFOs. We just don't fit the usual venture checklist. Our investing partners would need to understand and support the longer timelines needed to bring true moonshots to market. Our graduating companies needed boards that could help with the critical operational support to transition from moonshots at X to market leaders.
A Bold Experiment in Moonshot Funding
We decided to fundamentally rethink how to take our moonshot technology to market. Together with Alphabet, we mapped out an unprecedented new funding structure: X would give a new, purpose-built venture partner the very first external look at our pipeline, and in exchange, that fund would focus exclusively on backing X projects.
It’s a creative, dual-sided experiment, one which challenges the traditional constraints of both venture capital and corporate innovation. This new, purpose-built partner in this (ad)venture is Series X Capital.
Series X Capital
Series X Capital is an independent venture fund founded by Gideon Yu, focused on backing X spinouts and accelerating the way we bring our moonshot breakthroughs into the world. The team provides the capital and operational support that X projects need as they become new startups. Gideon’s deep operational background at iconic companies, combined with a venture pedigree at world-class funds, gives him an innate understanding of how to scale the unconventional.
In the past 18 months, Series X has backed Taara, our moonshot for connectivity; Chorus, our moonshot for AI-powered supply chain orchestration; and Anori, our moonshot for AI housing and development. These deals have been syndicated with strategic and industry partners who bring specific domain expertise to round out the boards. In March 2026, Series X also led the latest round for Verily Health, an X alum and former Alphabet Other Bet focused on building an AI-native platform for healthcare, in which Alphabet retains a significant minority stake.
Radical innovation will always be a messy, beautiful journey. In working with Series X, we are building a more repeatable, systematic pipeline to help our projects become companies that have a lasting, positive impact in the world. Our moonshots get the financial runway and commercial freedom they need to grow, and X maintains our focus on the early stages of innovation. By designing this as a flywheel between X and Series X, we’re aiming to unlock a unique, long-term collaboration which will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible.