A New Golden Age For The Space Sector?

TECH IN THE NEWS

Foreign Policy Picks — Donald Trump is expected to nominate renowned China hawk Marco Rubio for secretary of state, and Mike Waltz as national security adviser.

No Harm, No Foul — A federal judge dismissed a publisher copyright lawsuit against OpenAI over AI training data due to lack of proof of harm to the news outlets.

Highs All Round — Bitcoin hit new all-time highs, passing $89k while the USD and bond yields saw big jumps, as investors bet on tax cuts, tariffs, and deregulation.

Web Summit — The 2024 summit kicks off in Lisbon, hosting discussions among tech leaders and lawmakers on topics such as AI, social media regulation, and the recent US political order shift.

Chip Shifts — 1. US orders Taiwan’s TSMC to halt AI chip shipments to China. | 2. EU invests $142M in Dutch photonic chip plants. | 3. Japan unveils $65B plan to aid chip industry. | 4. South Korea plans chips Act to avert Trump tariffs threat.

COMPANIES TO WATCH

Near Protocol — The decentralized blockchain company plans to build the world’s largest open-source AI model, a 1.4T parameter LLM surpassing Meta's Llama.

Digital T-Bills — Abu Dhabi firm Neovision partnered with Realize to launch an investment vehicle that will buy ETF units focused on US Treasury bills and convert the assets into tradeable digital tokens.

Anthropic — The AI startup is in talks with Amazon about another billion-dollar plus investment into the startup, but the catch is it would need to commit to using AWS to train its’ AI models rather than its current solution, Nvidia.

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THE HOTTEST THING IN TECH
The Dawn Of A New Space Golden Age?

The Trump administration could feature self-proclaimed ‘space nerd’ and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as a de-facto (if not official) space czar. Reports suggest this could herald a significant reshaping of the US space industry. We could see accelerated commercialization and prioritizing of ambitious near-Earth missions like lunar mining and settlements and eventually Mars missions. An alignment of Trump and Musk's space ambitions and focus on commercial partnerships and deregulation, could create lucrative opportunities for private space companies, scientists and innovators. It could also impact international space relations and competition, sparking a second global space race, this time with startups and nations competing for control of orbit and eventually strategic positions on the Moon for resource extraction and exploration.  

Potential Changes

Significant changes could include a significant increase in the space budget and deregulation of the sector. It could also see a renewed focus on the Artemis program to compete with China, and the possible establishment of a Space National Guard. Musk's focus on cost reduction and SpaceX's success with Starship could lead to a shift away from NASA’s expensive ($4.1B per launch) SLS launch system, impacting stakeholders and investors in traditional aerospace companies like Boeing and Northrop Grumman. This shift towards private-sector solutions presents opportunities for investors in companies like SpaceX while raising concerns about regulatory oversight and the future of NASA's role as a non-partisan agency. 

Trump also stated on the campaign trail that he will instigate a Mars mission within his term. This could create significant opportunities for SpaceX and investors in other ventures involved in Mars exploration and technology development. However, the feasibility of Musk's ambitious timelines for Mars missions may be a challenge. The administration's likely priority focus will be on national security and countering China's space ambitions and potential budget constraints. This means Trump's emphasis will be on and near-Earth milestones. This creates a potentially volatile landscape for investors, presenting a high-risk, high-reward scenario, demanding close attention to policy shifts and potential conflicts. 

Full Stack Lunar Missions

Speaking or Near-Earth goals, US space startup Intuitive Machines' recent success as the first private company to land on the moon has led its CEO to announce a bold optimistic vision for the moon this week. Steve Altemus just set out the company's plans to build “a full stack: all the pieces you need to create missions to the moon, on the moon, and around the moon.” The increase in IM’s lunar landings and its expanding role in providing lunar infrastructure and communication services signals the growing viability of a commercial lunar economy and even settlements.

With SpaceX helping out with orbital transfers via the Falcon9 Heavy lifter, this could massively scale up lunar efforts quick. This presents significant opportunities for investors and VCs interested in companies developing and supporting lunar missions, infrastructure, and data services. Intuitive Machines' focus on cost-effective solutions and its ability to attract talent from established players like NASA highlights the company's potential for growth and leadership in the emerging lunar market. 

He Who Controls the Moon…

The Moon is supposed to be a neutral space for the good of all humanity, so cannot be militarized in theory. However, control of orbit is shaping up to be a key part of the space defense battlefield. Both the US and China are investing heavily in advanced orbital communications and surveillance, and even weapons. Last week we also highlighted how SpaceX revealed it is expanding into military and spy satellites, capitalizing on the Pentagon's push to counter China's space-based military systems. China also made headlines last week with its advanced directed-energy “Death Star” weapon capable of focusing multiple “high-powered microwave” beams onto a single target in space or on earth. This growing space communications and defense sector is another avenue for investment in companies focused on aerospace and comms tech. 

finally, a while back we also featured the lucrative new race to mine asteroids and the moon for rare earth minerals and even Helium for nuclear reactors.

TRENDING TOOLS AND BUZZY TECH
Tools

Baidu — To reveal cheaper MR smart glasses w/ inbuilt camera, AI assistant.

MIT — LucidSim AI system trains 4-legged robots using generated imagery.

DeepMind — AI protein-prediction tool AlphaFold3 is now open source.

xAI — Testing a free version of Grok-2 to be made available soon on X platform.

Revoy — Electrifying US truck fleets by swapping in/out hybrid electric units.

Tech

QKC — US firm sets record with fusion plasma temp of ‘392M F for 24 hrs’.

SpaceX — To power Mars-bound Starship with LG’s lithium batteries.

Ai-da — First painting by humanoid robot artist sells for $1.3M at Sotheby’s.

General Galactic — SpaceX alums invent a CO2-to-methane fuel tech.

Meta — Partners to embed VR in education in US, Europe universities.

Stem-cell Transplants — Three people have restored lost vision lasting 1 year+.

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