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- DTN 122: California Forever
DTN 122: California Forever
Plus: Underwater kamikaze drones, AI-managed blackouts, EV batteries for data centers, 3D-printed lung tissue, mixing cement at sea, and more.
“A lot of the executives on the commercial side of businesses are starting to understand how powerful military leadership training can be for a company. If you can get somebody who has had military training, you are going to get all those leadership capabilities in somebody who's way beyond their years.”
‘Utopian’ city California Forever announces huge tech manufacturing park
“California Forever announced on Thursday plans to build a massive manufacturing park called Solano Foundry, the newest addition to its master-planned ‘utopian’ city backed by a group of Silicon Valley billionaires.
Solano Foundry is 2,100 acres that can host 40 million square feet of advanced tech manufacturing space. The manufacturing park will be built as part of its planned walkable city with over 175,000 homes, CEO Jan Sramek said at the Reindustrialize conference in Detroit.
Sramek tweeted that U.S. manufacturers can’t win by ‘building factories off of random freeway exits in the middle of nowhere. The best people don’t want to work there.’”
Chemify “farm” cultivates molecules by marrying chemistry, AI, and robotics
Meet the cement transport ship that makes cement ingredients while sailing
GM teams up with Redwood Materials to power data centers with EV batteries
Microsoft is buying tons of carbon removal from Xprize startup Vaulted Deep
Rainmaker partners with Atmo to squeeze more rain from clouds
California is set to become the first US state to manage power outages with AI
NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns
Sai Baba. Photographer: Alecio Ferrari for Bloomberg Businessweek
Robots are transforming marble sculpture in Italy, handling large-scale projects for top artists with speed and precision. While automation is reshaping the industry, traditional hand-carving remains essential for fine details and artistic expression. American stone fabricator Jim Durham has embraced both worlds, acquiring Italy’s most prestigious carving studio to blend robotic efficiency with human craftsmanship. (via Bloomberg)
Scientists detect new 'quantum echo' in superconducting materials
Researchers use strands of DNA and mRNA with similar lengths to aid in search for new drugs
A lunar base could start with a dome over a crater made of regolith
A new approach for generating inner ear hair cells expands research possibilities
AI finds hundreds of potential antibiotics in snake and spider venom
Researchers demonstrate error-resistant quantum gates using exotic anyons for computation
Researchers demonstrate room-temperature lasing in photonic-crystal surface-emitting laser
Programmable DNA moiré superlattices: Expanding the material design space at the nanoscale
Scientists unveil new way to control magnetism in super-thin materials
Auriga Space raises $6M to shoot rockets off an electromagnetic launch track
Apple commits $500M to U.S.-based rare earth recycling firm MP Materials
Quantum startup Bifrost Electronics raises $2.5M in seed funding
Amogy, a provider of ammonia-to-power solutions, raises additional $23M in funding
Defense technology company Chariot Defense raises $8M in seed funding
Expeditionary manufacturing company Firestorm Labs raises $47M in Series A funding
Dual-use AI software company Kilsar raises $3.7M in seed funding
Precision oncology techbio company One Biosciences raises €15M in Series A funding
Fiber Elements raises €2.6M in seed funding for automated basalt fiber manufacturing
Quantum-accelerated simulation software company BQP raises $5M in funding
Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts
Biotechnology company Illimis Therapeutics raises $42M in Series B funding
Biotechnology company Pretzel Therapeutics receives investment from Mito Fund
Autonomous medical robotics company Cobionix raises $3M in funding
Hololight raises €10M in funding to support distribution of its AR/VR pixel-streaming technology
RealSense raises $50M in Series A funding for AI-powered computer vision
MOTOR AI, a startup developing cognitive autonomous driving tech, raised a $20M seed round
Nordic Air Defense raises $3M to expand operations and advance drone defense technology
12 firms collected over 50% of all venture cash in the first half of 2025
The 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet / Gwern's Perfume Reviews / 3D printing patterns might make ghost guns more traceable than we thought / xAI is hiring an engineer to make anime girls / Train brakes can be hacked over radio–and the industry knew for 20 years / Metadata shows the FBI’s ‘raw’ Jeffrey Epstein prison video was likely modified / '123456' password exposed chats for 64M McDonald's job applicants / Psilocybin shows promise as anti-aging therapy / Maine police caught lying about using AI to alter drug bust photo / 'I felt pure, unconditional love': the people who marry their AI chatbots / The biggest piece of Mars on Earth is going up for auction in New York / Can Pittsburgh’s old steel mills be turned into an AI hub / VCs seek a ride on the defense bandwagon