Y Combinator's Summer 2026 Request for Startups lists 15 categories, eight of which require hardware or capital, including agriculture robots, counter-drone defence, space inference chips, lunar manufacturing, and semiconductor supply chain software. The move is seen as a significant shift in YC's public investment thesis, suggesting that AI will be applied to physical, regulated, and capital-intensive industries. Each category is written by a named partner and includes a thesis on why the economics of a particular industry have just shifted. The RFS also highlights a shift in what venture capital is willing to fund, with defence tech startups raising a record $49.1 billion in 2025, nearly double the previous year. The Company Brain category asks for a system that pulls knowledge from a company's current current, and transforms it into an executable map of AI. The Dynamic Software Interfaces category asks founders to rebuild software interfaces for companies that can respond to incidents.