Led by Scout Ventures, the Funding Will Accelerate Commercialization of Chips That Generate Persistent Power from Quantum Vacuum Fields May 12, 2026 Casimir, Inc., a quantum energy technology company founded by former NASA advanced propulsion researcher Dr. Harold “Sonny” White, today announced the close of a $12 million seed round led by Scout Ventures. The funding will commercialize the world's first quantum vacuum energy source: semiconductor chips that harvest energy from quantum vacuum fields to produce continuous electrical power with no batteries, cords, or charging required. The oversubscribed round exceeded its original $8 million target, reflecting strong investor confidence in Casimir's solution to one of energy technology's longest-standing challenges, harnessing the Casimir effect. Scout Ventures is joined by Lavrock Ventures, Cottonwood Technology, Capital Factory, American Deep Tech, and Tim Draper of Draper Associates. The funding will accelerate chip performance optimization, targeting commercial availability of the company's first-generation MicroSparc chip by 2028, positioning Casimir to disrupt the ultra-low-power electronics sector. Casimir’s MicroSparc chip measures just 5mm × 5mm and is designed to produce 1.5 volts at 25 microamps, performance comparable to a small rechargeable battery, but with no degradation and no replacement cycle. The company’s initial market targets ultra-low-power electronics, including tire pressure monitoring systems, embedded sensors, wearables, and other devices where battery replacement is costly or impractical, a market valued at nearly $10 billion today. Casimir's technology is engineered to scale across the full power spectrum. Beyond its initial IoT applications, the company’s roadmap extends into consumer electronics and mobility platforms, including electric vehicles, and ultimately into larger-scale energy systems capable of powering homes and commercial infrastructure, a total addressable market exceeding $67 billion. As artificial intelligence drives unprecedented demand for persistent, low-latency computing, Casimir’s battery-free architecture offers new possibilities for always-on memory, edge devices, and autonomous systems at every scale. “Millions of devices will operate for years without a battery ever needing to be replaced or recharged because we have engineered a customized Casimir cavity into hardware capable of producing persistent electrical power,” said Dr. Harold “Sonny” White, Founder and CEO of Casimir. “I spent nearly two decades at NASA studying how we power humanity’s future. That work led me to the Casimir effect and the quantum vacuum, where new tools have allowed us to build on a century of scientific knowledge and bring abundant power to the world.” Casimir's technology was incubated at the Limitless Space Institute (LSI), a nonprofit advancing interstellar travel founded by Dr. Kam Ghaffarian, the technology investor and serial entrepreneur behind X-energy, Intuitive Machines, Axiom Space, and Quantum Space. Dr. White serves as LSI's Director of Advanced Research and Development, the role from which Casimir’s technology emerged. Dr. Ghaffarian continues to serve as an investor and board member of Casimir. “Casimir represents exactly the kind of breakthrough dual-use technology Scout Ventures was built to back,” said Brad Harrison, Founder and Managing Partner at Scout Ventures. “This is based on 100 years of science and we’re finally approaching a commercial product. Sonny’s ability to pull pieces from different domains of research and engineer them together into working hardware is remarkable. We’re proud to lead this round and support Casimir’s journey from applied science to deployed technology.” Casimir's scientific foundation has been supported by multiple research and development efforts, including DARPA-funded nanofabrication research, university partnerships, and Dr. White's peer-reviewed work on the dynamic quantum vacuum. On March 9, 2026, Dr. White published "Emergent Quantization from a Dynamic Vacuum" in Physical Review Research (DOI: 10.1103/l8y7-r3rm), providing the theoretical foundation for why engineered Casimir cavities produce usable electrical energy and marking the latest milestone in his nearly two decades of advanced propulsion research at NASA. Casimir is proudly American-made, actively engaged with commercial, university, and government partners for dual-use applications with direct implications for U.S. energy independence and national security. Casimir is the world’s first quantum vacuum energy company, developing semiconductor chips designed to generate persistent power using the physics of the quantum vacuum, no batteries, cords, or charging required. Founded by Dr. Harold “Sonny” White, a former NASA advanced propulsion researcher, the company has engineered customized Casimir cavity structures into semiconductor hardware, technology built on nearly a century of quantum physics and validated by DARPA-funded nanofabrication and peer-reviewed research. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, and proudly built in America. www.casimir-inc.com Scout Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in dual-use technologies that advance U.S. national security and global stability. The firm focuses on artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, space infrastructure, cybersecurity, quantum technology, and advanced power, the critical technologies underlying how modern forces shoot, move, and communicate. Scout partners with founders from the military and intelligence community, leading national research laboratories, and top-tier research universities to back breakthrough companies at the seed stage. Scout's mission: to invest in technology so capable, and deterrence so credible, that conflict becomes unthinkable. Luca Sesti [email protected]