[3][4][5][6] The term "deep tech" has been present for decades,[7] representing R&D divisions at major defense and telecommunications corporations such as Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, and Bell Labs, to the more modern definition which increasingly includes companies found in the venture capital ecosystem or awardees of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, a U.S. government program, coordinated by the Small Business Administration, that provides $2.5 Billion annually to small, U.S.-owned companies who compete for funding to develop and commercialize disruptive technologies.
[8][9] According to year 2019 research by the Boston Consulting Group and Hello Tomorrow, a French nonprofit that supports deep technology, the most prominent deep tech fields included advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, biotechnology, blockchain, robotics, photonics, aerospace and space technology, electronics (including semiconductor manufacturing), cyber threat intelligence, fusion power and quantum computing.
[3] Possible fields for deep tech application include agriculture, life sciences, chemistry, aerospace and green energy.
[8] In business context, deep tech has three key attributes: potential for impact, a long time to reach market-ready maturity, and substantial requirement for capital.
[11][8] Corporations such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Apple show increased interest towards deep tech applications in AI, virtual reality, drones, self-driving cars.