MBA teams from Harvard and Chicago Booth are commercializing advanced manufacturing and semiconductor technologies. Matter, founded by HBS alumni, closed an oversubscribed $20 million seed round to scale AI‑driven, software‑defined factories for electromechanical assembly and says it already has LOIs and DFMs with customers. Chicago Booth‑backed K1 Semiconductor is commercializing wafer‑spalling to enable wafer reuse, raising $1.4 million and engaging major chip manufacturers in pilots. Universities are positioning these ventures as proof points for cross‑disciplinary programs—engineering, operations, and business—while research offices are fielding inquiries about industry partnerships and domestic supply‑chain resilience.