The Biggest Deep Tech Stories of 2023

Editor Note: We’re departing slightly from our regular format this week to review the biggest deep tech stories of the past year. We’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming next week. Thanks for reading and see you in 2024!

JANUARY

• Mercedes-Benz is first to get approval for Level 3 autonomous driving in US

• NuScale Power’s small modular reactor design is first in US to get NRC approval

FEBRUARY

• DOE Dedicates Funding for Up to Seven EGS Geothermal Pilot Demonstrations

• Blue Origin makes solar cells and transmission wire from regolith simulants

• The first network of robotic telescopes present across five continents is deployed

• First electric air taxi takes flight around New York City

• 5th person confirmed to be cured of HIV after stem cell transplant

MARCH

• Virgin Orbit pauses all operations

• Relativity Spaces launches its 3D-printed rocket for the first time

APRIL

• Elon Musk and 1000 other researchers call for ‘pause’ on advanced AI systems

• NASA Introduces first 3 astronauts to fly to the moon in more than 50 years

• Researchers make brain images just got 64 million times sharper

• SpaceX launches fully stacked Starship

MAY

• AI reconstructs human thoughts using brain images

• Google completes the first human pangenome reference

• First ever successful brain surgery on a fetus still in the womb

• Paralyzed man walks naturally, thanks to wireless ‘bridge’ between brain and spine

JUNE

• Satellite beams solar power down to Earth, in first-of-a-kind demonstration

• Scientists Guide Lightning Bolts with Lasers for the First Time

• Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Coal in U.S. for the first time

• Virgin Galactic completes first suborbital tourist flight

• Zoox begins testing robotaxis on public roads in Las Vegas

JULY

• Actors Approve Strike as AI Fears Bring Hollywood to a Standstill

• Cruise starts initial robotaxi testing in Miami

• Researchers claim LK99 as first room-temperature superconductor

• NASA taps Lockheed Martin to develop nuclear rocket

• AOH1996: A New Mode of Cancer Treatment

AUGUST

• Russia launches first moon mission in nearly 50 years

• Arecibo Observatory Shuts Down Its Science

• Waymo starts taking fares for SF robotaxis after state approval

• India Becomes Fourth Country Ever to Land on the Moon, First to Lunar South Pole

SEPTEMBER

• Human embryo models grown from stem cells

• Da Vinci robot surgeon removes inoperable tumor, saving patient’s life

• The world’s longest subsea power cable completed

• Elon Musk’s Neuralink begins accepting human patients for trials of its brain implant

• World’s first drug to regrow teeth enters clinical trials

• NASA delivers bounty of asteroid samples to Earth

OCTOBER

• A Lab Just 3D-Printed a Neural Network of Living Brain Cells

• First Blood Test for Dozens of Hereditary Cancers Approved by FDA

• NIH publishes Groundbreaking Human Brain Cell Atlas

• First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by 21 year old computer science student

• The first turbine is up at the US’s first commercial offshore wind farm

NOVEMBER

• Researchers invent a thermal transistor, the first solid-state device that uses an electronic signal to control the flow of heat

• A person who has had Parkinson's disease for 25 years can now walk again

• First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US canceled

• U.S. Hits Carbon Tech Milestone with First Direct-Air Capture Facility

• Nature Retracts Room-Temperature Superconductor Discovery

• U.K. Becomes First Country to Approve a CRISPR Disease Treatment

• AI outperforms conventional weather forecasting for the first time

• NASA's Deep Space Optical Comm demo sends, receives first data

DECEMBER

• An AI Dreamed Up 380,000 New Materials

• Fervo’s Enhanced Geothermal System Begins Operations in Nevada

• The EU Passes Sweeping New Rules to Regulate AI

• FDA approves first CRISPR therapy

• DeepMind's LLM Solved an Unsolvable Math Problem

• Hyperloop One shuts down

• First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in operation

• Scientists discover the first new antibiotics in over 60 years using AI

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JPEG of the Week

 NASA beamed a video of a cat named Taters from deep space to Earth using lasers. 

In a successful demonstration of new laser communications capabilities, NASA beamed an ultra-high definition video across 19 million miles of space from its Psyche spacecraft to Earth earlier this month. It’s the first time a UHD streaming video has been sent from deep space via laser. The history-making video? A 15-second clip of an orange cat named Taters chasing a laser dot. The signal from the video, sent on December 11, made it to Earth in 101 seconds from Psyche’s location at the time, which was about 80 times as far as the distance between Earth and the moon. (via NASA)

Funding x M&A

• Akron Energy raises $110M to grow U.S. bitcoin mining capacity

• BotBuilt raises $12.4M to automate homebuilding

• Proto, a holographic communications platform, raised $25M

• Labrys Technologies, a UK-based defense tech startup, raised a $5.5M seed round

• Axelspace, a satellite data startup, raised a $44M Series D

• Skyline Robotics, the developers of robotic-armed window cleaning robot Ozmo, raised $9.8M

• 3D metal printing startup Seurat Technologies raised a $99M Series C

• Unnatural Products, a biotech startup combining AI and chemistry to create targeted therapeutics, raised a $32M Series A

• Sweetch Energy, a renewable energy company specializing in osmotic energy, raised a $27.5M Series A 

• Agtonomy, a startup specializing in autonomous and AI solutions for agriculture, raised a $22.5M Series A

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