Underwriting The New Industrial Base
A new American industrial base is taking shape, and the capital to finance it is not yet organized to match.
New assets: GPU clusters, modular reactors, domestic fabs, autonomous fleets, the defense industrial base. Underwriting precedents don't yet exist. Every deal is being built from scratch.
That works for the first wave. It does not scale to the trillions required at scale.
The work now is building the category that can scale and standardize bespoke capital solutions: making the assets underwritable. Standardizing how venture equity, private credit, and federal capital combine on a single deal.
Adapting the discipline of project finance to novel collateral types. Building the community structures that get projects approved and financed: benefit agreements, local participation, shared upside.
Turning tailored financings into structures that can be rated and syndicated. Giving pensions, insurers, and sovereign capital what they need to allocate at scale.
That’s what The Private Markets Forum is convening a leadership group to develop in Washington on September 16.
