🛡️Meta Goes Dual-Use with Anduril; ⚛️ AI for Nuclear Reactors; 🛰️ Sat Buses Get Modular; 🧱 Carbon-Negative Bricks; 🔋 Solid-State Biobatteries & more | Deep Tech Briefing #63
Weekly Intelligence on Deep Tech Startups and Venture Capital.
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Dear friends,
This week in deep tech we saw Meta and Anduril converge on a new frontier: not social networks or consumer AI, but edge-native systems for high-stakes, real-time environments.
Elsewhere, robotics reminded us that capital now favors functionality over form. Humanoid systems built for hazardous labor and logistics bots inching toward commercial viability are shifting focus away from sci-fi aesthetics and toward deployment economics. In this space, reliability and repeatability matter more than wonder.
Energy saw AI embed itself deeper into operations—from nuclear oversight to next-gen hydrogen control—while microbial recycling and battery repurposing pushed the frontier of circularity. Not every play is holding up, though: the collapse of a prominent recycler was a clear warning. Technical feasibility alone isn’t enough without supply chain stability and secured offtake.
In materials, the signals were quiet but profound. Structural innovations are emerging that can sequester carbon at scale, recover textiles at the molecular level, and extract critical metals without traditional smelting.
Space, too, is undergoing industrial consolidation. Launch platforms are acquiring sensor capabilities, satellite buses are becoming modular hardware, and propulsion systems are reaching production-grade volume. Even compute infrastructure is moving beyond Earth—into orbit, with edge analytics running onboard.
Autonomy continued its slow normalization. Trucks are now hauling real freight on commercial routes. Driverless vehicles are entering structured urban zones under government partnerships. The question isn’t whether autonomy arrives—it’s how it gets priced, regulated, and scaled.
Across sectors, a pattern emerges: modularity, defensibility, and systems-level relevance are replacing vision as the currency of traction. If deep tech once pitched novelty, it now demands integration. From carbon markets to space platforms, from fusion to AI-enabled defense, the players that matter are those solving for deployment—not just disruption.
Enjoy the read.
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In Today's Briefing:
The Big Idea – Does Anduril’s Meta alliance mark a systemic realignment between Big Tech and defense?
The Key Updates – Robotics exits the demo phase as humanoids take on hazardous labor. Circular chemistry gains traction as materials go carbon-negative. AI integrates into nuclear and hydrogen infrastructure. Battery reuse advances, while recycling falters. Space consolidates as launch, payload, and compute converge. Agrifood evolves into compliance-driven infrastructure. Defense stacks merge chips, cyber, and autonomy. AVs become freight infrastructure. Compute architecture fragments—photons rise, inference specializes. Healthtech pivots toward delivery, with diagnostics moving to the edge—and more.
Deep Tech Power Plays – Texas places a multimillion-dollar bet on nuclear energy. Europe injects billions of euros to build tech sovereignty. The UK and EU reunite on AI through a new supercomputing pact.
Interesting Reading:
The deeper you dig, the weirder, wider, and more telling the world of deep tech becomes. Here are a few standout reads from this week:
Why investors are developing a taste for alt-chocolate
As cocoa faces sustainability and supply constraints, startups are exploring fermentation and synthetic biology to recreate chocolate from non-traditional sources.→ Could alternative chocolate be more than a novelty — and signal a broader shift in how we build climate-resilient food systems? Global Venturing
US orders chip design software companies to stop Chinese sales
Washington’s latest export control targets EDA software — a key layer in semiconductor development — tightening the U.S.-China tech standoff. → How might this reshape upstream innovation and global R&D collaboration in chips Capital Brief
Nuclear Energy Sees Renewed Momentum From Startups And Industry
Private capital is cautiously returning to nuclear — especially modular solutions with flexible deployment potential. → Can startups reframe nuclear as part of the climate solution, not just a legacy bet? Forbes
Ultrasonic Oxidation Tech Make Waves for Municipal Water
Cities are testing ultrasonic oxidation to clean wastewater with fewer chemicals and more energy efficiency → Is water innovation becoming the next quiet frontier for public tech investment? GovTech
European startup down rounds fall as VC market recovers
Valuation pressures are easing across Europe, with signs of normalization in funding dynamics → Are we entering a more durable, founder-favorable phase in the EU venture cycle? PitchBook
General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja wants to redefine venture capital. Is anyone else listening?
A vision of VC rooted in long-term impact, institutional alignment, and societal resilience — not just exits.→ Can venture evolve without losing its speed and edge? Business Insider
Lux Capital Digs Deeper Into Academia for Technological Gems
By embedding closer to university research, Lux is sourcing innovation at the scientific idea stage → Could this model reset how frontier tech reaches the market? The Wall Street Journal
Autonomous vehicles: How China is leading mining’s next economic driving force
China’s automation of its mining sector is about more than efficiency — it’s about strategic control of materials and technology → Will AVs in mining become a new axis of global industrial competition?
Mining Technology
💡The Big idea
Does Anduril’s Meta Alliance Mark a Systemic Realignment Between Big Tech and Defense?
If you follow the trajectory of integration between AI, edge compute, and defense tech, this week marks a turning point worth watching closely...
It’s a moment of systemic realignment between Big Tech and defense, but what stands out in the partnership between Meta and Anduril isn’t the technical content—it’s the political-industrial positioning it represents. It’s not just a deal between a company with consumer-market origins and a next-generation defense firm, it signals the emergence of a new operational axis