⛏️ Mining Goes Autonomous; 🌾 Crop Logic Scales; 🛰️ Orbital Logistics Rise; 🛡️Tactical Autonomy Scales; 🧠 AI Faces the Grid & More | Deep Tech Briefing #62

Weekly Intelligence on Deep Tech Startups and Venture Capital. Your dose of tech innovations, startups, exponential industries, policies, and market moves to stay ahead and capitalize on it.

Welcome back to Deep Tech Briefing — the weekly intelligence from The Scenarionist decoding the key shifts, hidden catalysts, and inflection points you can’t miss from the world of Deep Tech Startups and Venture capital.

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Interesting Reading:

A few interesting reads from this week offered fresh angles and inspiring reflections…

• Singapore’s Strategic Push to Lead Global Startup Innovation
  Singapore is methodically building a robust innovation ecosystem to attract and scale startups. A quiet but strategic move worth watching closely.
  OpenGov Asia

• China’s Space Economy Flies High With Record Investment Surge
  China’s space sector is seeing unprecedented capital inflows, signaling accelerated ambitions. This momentum could reshape regional dynamics.
  Ion Analytics

• It’s Never Been Harder to Make It in Venture Capital
  New VC funds face a stark fundraising environment, highlighting the importance of differentiation and track record in this cycle.
  Bloomberg

• The AI Boom Has Fueled a Wave of Overfunded Startups That Look Healthy on the Surface
  Generous AI funding masks underlying revenue challenges. Investors should carefully evaluate fundamentals amid growing ‘zombiecorn’ concerns.
  ITPro

• AI Startups That Focus Small Are Winning Big
  Niche AI players are delivering targeted value and sustainable growth, proving focus can outpace scale in today’s market.
  Forbes

• Anduril, Fury and General Atomics Are Building the US Air Force’s New Drone Engine
  Defense is embracing commercial innovation through strategic partnerships, accelerating capabilities with proven industry players.
  Business Insider

• Why Space Manufacturing Should Be a National Strategic Priority
  Space manufacturing promises strategic advantages beyond traditional sectors. National commitment here could yield outsized returns.
  Capital Brief

• The IPO Market Is Stirring, But at Down-Round Valuations
  Public market activity is returning with caution. Valuation resets may challenge expectations but can pave the way for healthier markets ahead.
  The Wall Street Journal

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Dear friends,

If you're trying to understand where the real inflection points in deep tech are forming—this week delivered clarity. Across nearly every domain, the shift is unmistakable: from pilots to infrastructure, from vision decks to procurement.

Space startups are pivoting from launch velocity to orbital logistics. AI companies are confronting the hard ceiling of compute power—not just algorithmic, but physical: energy throughput, chip thermals, and raw material constraints. Biotech is being reformatted as a programmable stack, while autonomy is quietly shifting from disruption to integration.

Meanwhile, mining—long overlooked—is emerging as one of the most consequential leverage points in the global deep tech stack. From AI-native haulage retrofits to high-grade indium discoveries and seabed exploration permits, it's becoming the front line of national supply chain strategy, not just a legacy industry.

And sovereignty? It’s no longer a narrative—it’s an operating system. From modular defense platforms and regional energy storage to sovereign-scale nuclear ambitions—like the U.S. plan to quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050—the ability to build locally, adapt contextually, and deploy under constraint is defining the next wave of winners.

This isn’t about sentiment. It’s about system constraints—energy density, orbital cadence, mineral access, deployment timelines—and the industrial convergence now forming between computation, biology, and materials science.

This edition traces those signals—quietly, precisely, and sector by sector.

This week’s focal points include:

• Space: From Fragmented Ambition to Orbital Infrastructure—Where the Commercial Convergence is Quietly Taking Shape

• Mining: Autonomy Underground, Indium in the Outback, and the Re-Industrialization of Critical Supply Chains

• AI: Power Constraints, Interface Futures, and the Industrial Quiet Revolution of Compute Efficiency

• Robotics: From Hype Cycles to Tooling Stacks—Humanoids, Perception, and the Quiet Maturation of Embodied AI

• Energy: From Quantum Horizons to Industrial Retrenchment—What the Green Transition Looks Like Beneath the Surface

• AgriFood: Modeling Biology, Localizing Inputs, and Rebuilding Agriculture as Infrastructure

• Defense: Autonomy at the Tactical Edge, Energy-Dense Warfare, and the Rise of Sovereign-Scale Startups

• Computing: From Neural Interfaces to Quantum Logistics—Building the Infrastructure for Post-Classical Systems

• Biotech: From Airborne Proteins to AI Cloud Labs—Reformatting Biology as a Programmable Industry

• Materials: Durable Steel, Programmable Textiles, and the Return of the Supply Chain as Strategy

• Transportation: Autonomy in Retreat, Reinvention, and Recalibration

• Deep Tech Power Play: Nuclear Energy, Cybersecurity, and Strategic Realignments

Let’s get into the details. 👇

Enjoy the reading,

Giulia