David McLauchlan

What are the advantages of launching from Australia? And how will more viable launch options impact the future of #SmallSat and #NewSpace? Check out the interview from Adam Gilmour.

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Three years ago, when we said Manufacturing Tech was the next frontier, we mostly got blank stares. Today, the momentum is undeniable. AI is finally unlocking the digitization wave that manufacturing has waited decades for. And with public investment, private capital, and physical infrastructure like Solano Foundry coming online, the sector is positioned to catch up to the rest of the economy. Since 2000, industries like Financial Services, Information, and Business Services have tripled their GDP contributions, fueled by decades of digitization and software adoption. Meanwhile, Manufacturing has only doubled. That gap represents a $3.8 trillion catch-up opportunity and the window to build the enabling layer is wide open. The time is now. The infrastructure is forming. And the tools to modernize the industrial backbone of the country are finally here. We’re actively backing founders at this inflection point. If you’re building at the intersection of software and industry, we’d love to connect.

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Most people underestimate how hard it is to build a real electronics product. The founders who step into hardware anyway , they’re playing a different game.

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Tessellate Robotics and Calian share a unified vision: advancing Canada’s defense capabilities through innovation, collaboration, and trusted national expertise. By combining our complementary strengths—cutting‑edge robotics and autonomous systems with deep operational experience and mission‑ready technologies—we are committed to tackling the complex technological challenges facing modern defense. Together, we aim to deliver resilient, Canadian‑led solutions that enhance readiness, strengthen sovereignty, and support the women and men who protect our nation.

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SpaceX acquiring xAI today is one of the most consequential private-market moves in AI infrastructure to date. Reportedly, the combined entity is valued at north of $1.25T — an almost unprecedented number for a private company. But the headline isn’t the valuation. It’s the thesis behind it. Elon Musk has been explicit about the long-term vision: In the next 2–3 years, space-based data centers could become the most cost-effective path to scaling AI compute. That’s a bold claim — and while I find the direction fascinating, I’m skeptical of the timeline, especially once you break this down at a systems level. From first principles: • Power: Solar generation in orbit is genuinely compelling — continuous exposure, no atmospheric loss, no land constraints. • Cooling: This is the hard part. Space isn’t “cold” in a helpful way — it’s a poor heat sink. Modern AI data centers increasingly rely on liquid cooling, and rejecting multi-megawatt heat loads via radiation alone is both technically complex and capital intensive. • Economics & operations: Launch costs, hardware servicing, failure recovery, latency, and upgrade cycles introduce structural overhead that terrestrial hyperscale data centers simply don’t have. Given Elon’s track record of excessively aggressive timelines, I’d be surprised if space-based AI compute is economically competitive within the next few years. But I do think this move signals something much bigger: 👉 AI compute has become so strategically important that we’re now reorganizing entire industrial stacks — including space infrastructure — around it. That, more than the $1.25T valuation, is what stands out to me. I’d love to hear perspectives from folks deep in data center engineering, thermal systems, power infrastructure, or large-scale compute economics — what technical constraint do you think breaks first? https://lnkd.in/gvuW3VpD

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In AuHu #15, I challenged the global narrative on renewable energy and emissions, also questioning the fairness of restricting developing nations from industrializing. Full Episode: Autonomous Humanity #15 w/ Ernest Hale | Seeding the Environment Using Drones - A Blue Ocean Quest https://lnkd.in/e--ux6FB

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Ramblr.ai partners with Nakamir to bring #PhysicalAI to the US Navy ! We’re excited to share that Ramblr.ai will be partnering with Nakamir on a newly awarded #SBIR project with the US Navy, focused on bringing next‑generation #AI‑powered work guidance into Navy shipyards. As part of the effort, Ramblr.ai will deliver advanced computer vision for real‑world video understanding, enabling shipyard teams to capture expertise, improve task execution, and accelerate maintenance workflows through intuitive, #AI‑driven guidance. Shipyards everywhere face increasing demand, complex maintenance requirements, and a persistent shortage of skilled labor. We believe #AI built on real-world video and #AR data can be a major force multiplier — and this program is a big step toward that future. Christoph Leuze - thanks for the trust - let´s ship it :-) https://ramblr.ai #DefenseInnovation #AI #Shipbuilding #AugmentedReality #SBIR #WorkforceDevelopment #ComputerVision #SmartGlasses

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Founders always ask for the same thing: “Do you know a partner who can do everything: Engineering, prototyping, low-volume builds, and mass production?” I get why. On paper, it sounds perfect: 🔹 One team that knows the product from Day 0 🔹 Smooth handoff into EVT/DVT/PVT 🔹 Manufacturing input baked into early design 🔹 Less friction, fewer vendors, more trust Totally intuitive. But here’s the reality almost nobody says out loud: Those are four completely different skill sets, with different cultures, tempos, tools, and incentives. And the partner who is world-class at mass production is ALMOST never world-class at rapid iteration. Because the traits that make you strong at one phase often make you weak at the other. Mass production excellence = 🔸 Rigid systems 🔸 Heavy validation 🔸 Process obsessed 🔸 Optimized for scale, yield, and stability Early-stage excellence = 🔸 Fast 🔸 Messy 🔸 Creative 🔸 Comfortable with ambiguity and change Trying to get one team to do both is like expecting awesome sushi at the italian restaurant. (They might try… but should they? 🤢) Can it work? Yes, but only under very specific conditions: ✔️ Clear, locked industrial design ✔️ Serious funding ✔️ No long pauses or fundraising gaps ✔️ A straight path from prototype to EVT → DVT → PVT ✔️ A product destined for mass production from Day 1 SEACOMP has done it. But it takes alignment, timing, and a founder who understands what they are signing up for. For most teams, the healthier model is a relay: Expert design ➡️ expert prototyping ➡️ expert CM for scale. Different people, same mission. Not shaming anyone. The instinct makes total sense. The physics of hardware are just harder than the theory. ------ Want to chat on this some more? Come hang with us at #CES. Link in the comments.

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🌱 Wrapping up another energizing spring quarter at Stanford! I’ve been co-teaching “New Frontiers & Opportunities in Sustainability (ENVRES 221)” with Dave Mount—our 11th edition of this seminar built around John Doerr’s Speed & Scale framework. Each week we zoom in on the six big levers for a net-zero world: Electrify transportation 1️⃣ Decarbonize the grid 2️⃣ Fix food 3️⃣ Protect nature 4️⃣ Clean up industry 5️⃣ Remove carbon Guest-speaker highlights from the first seven weeks: • Ryan Panchadsaram & Quinn McKenna — Speed & Scale: unpacked the book’s pragmatic road map to cut 50 Gt of CO₂e by 2050. • Nick Halla — GigaClimate: the climate-company builder accelerating gigaton-scale, billion-person climate action today. • Hannah Bebbington — Frontier (Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, McKinsey): leading a $1 B advance-market commitment to purchase permanent carbon removal by 2030. • Juliet Rothenberg — Google: showed how AI slashes emissions, from optimizing traffic-light timing to reducing aircraft contrails. • Shely Aronov — InnerPlant: enabling plants to “talk” for higher yields with fewer inputs and less-toxic farming. • Cody Finke, Ph.D. — Brimstone : pioneering low-carbon cement and critical-mineral recovery. • Tom Mercer — Rewiring America: powering low-income home electrification to cut bills and indoor air pollution. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 The sustainability conversation has shifted from should we? to how fast—and how resilient—can we get? Climate action now intersects with economic security, public health, and national defense. Our students dissect real-world case studies and leave ready to debate, design, and deploy solutions at scale. Three sessions to go, and the momentum is unmistakable. Grateful to our speakers, students, and the broader Speed & Scale community for keeping the urgency—and optimism—high. 🔋 ♻️ 🌎 #SpeedAndScale #ClimateAction #Sustainability #Stanford #Decarbonization

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🚀  IHMC + Conduit Venture Labs: Turning Research Breakthroughs into Real World Impact I’m thrilled to share a new partnership between IHMC (Institute for Human & Machine Cognition) and Conduit Venture Labs to help advance real-world commercial paths for IHMC’s world-leading research. IHMC has been at the forefront of work in embodied AI, human-machine teaming, robotics, and human performance for decades. The opportunity now is not just continued discovery — it’s ensuring these technologies make it out of the lab and into the world, where they can drive real impact across defense, industry, and everyday life. 💡 Why this matters We’re at a pivotal moment for U.S. innovation. Across several critical domains — from advanced manufacturing to physical AI — the U.S. is falling behind. At the same time, our research institutions remain among the strongest in the world. The gap isn’t invention– it's translation Translating research into commercial outcomes isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s essential infrastructure. Too many breakthroughs don't exit the lab or stall before reaching scale, leaving economic, strategic, and societal value on the table. This partnership brings a builder’s lens early — evaluating multiple commercialization pathways (licensing, venture creation, strategic alliances) to ensure IHMC's breakthroughs reach real markets for impact and scale, delivering measurable returns. Thanks to IHMC's Ken Ford, Founder and CEO emeritus & Morley Stone, CEO of IHMC, for their vision and leadership. I have been a huge fan ever since I met Ken and got introduced to the organization. 👏 🙌 Lets go!!! 🚀 🚀 🚀 https://lnkd.in/gHCZkFFM #Ai #PhysicalAI, #Robotics #DeepTech #Commercialization #Innovation #PhysicalAI #TechTransfer #VentureBuilding Amish P. Christopher James Lüscher, Ph.D Jerome Hewlett

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Over half a BILLION Space dollars in May!? Funding. Acquisitions. Hiring Trends. This month, $513M flowed into space companies scaling hardware, power systems & secure comms. Big rounds from True Anomaly ($260M), Apex ($200M), and mPower signal a shift to ops-ready infrastructure across LEO, GEO & cislunar. 🛰 Major M&A: - AeroVironment’s $4.1B acquisition of BlueHalo - IonQ x Capella Space ($318M) 📈 Hiring is hot in engineering – electrical, embedded, and software lead the pack – but sales & delivery roles are rising too. The space sector is scaling fast again! return of 2021-2022 season? Come on, You KNOW you want to be subscriber number 41,728 👉🏻 Subscribe on LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/eUHkyWEi #SpaceIndustry #VentureCapital #HiringTrends #EVONA

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Went deep with Heatmap News about the latest tariff fun times -- it's super important to realize that the US manufacturing ecosystem has atrophied enough that medium+ volume, non-defense startups are presently wise to start offshore until something changes. Have heard horror stories about cost structures simply not working unless you have sufficient volume to fully vertically integrate -- and that's before we increased tariffs on manufacturing inputs.

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Industrial and technological revolutions are merging - physical AI and industrial AI are creating new markets and major platforms. I thought this report from Michael Palank at MaC Venture Capital was a great writeup of the energy and momentum shifting into industrial AI. What makes it fun as well is that Charles D. King was an investor in my first company, Melon. Now we're seeing those worlds collide again! Elementary, with our Rockwell Automation partnership, and with our Fortune 500 industrial customers every day, I'm seeing a fundamental shift in technology readiness, market readiness, and value creation thats possible. This is only accelerating and I'm excited for what's to come!

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DesignCon 2026 ⚡ Hardware development is entering a new phase. Decision Intelligence. Continuous inference embedded directly inside engineering and sourcing workflows. Built to help hardware teams make faster, smarter, trusted decisions. At Wizerr AI, we are building an AI-native intelligence layer for electronics. One that reasons across engineering specs, pin diagrams, graphs, lifecycle, cost, and supply in real time. What does that look like in practice? BOM optimization is entering a new phase. Engineering grade intelligence that evaluates every part decision in context. FFF alignment. Cross references. Lifecycle exposure. Supply and cost impact. Reasoned together, not reviewed separately. That is the shift. If you are at DesignCon, come meet us at booth 1266 (Aisle 1200). Let’s add a teammate that helps you move faster and focus on the real engineering work. #AIforhardware #designcon

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We're excited to be featured, alongside our partners Fortune Brands Innovations, in Bloomberg Originals' series on how AI impacts different industries, specifically how AI might reshape manufacturing. Thank you Patrick Knox Ric Wojcik for hosting us in your plant and sharing the impact you've seen. Your approach to innovation is leading the industry forward! You can watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/e5vKzFRg

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Yesterday, Ayar Labs announced the closing of $500 million in Series E funding, led by Neuberger Berman, raising the company’s valuation to $3.75 billion. The funds will be used to scale into high-volume production which accelerates the deployment of our co-packaged optical (CPO) solution across the the next generation of AI infrastructure. The round included some of the best institutional investors, including ARK Investment Management LLC, Insight Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and 1789 Capital, alongside key strategic investors AMD, Alchip Technologies, MediaTek, and NVIDIA. Congratulations to Mark Wade, the CEO and co-founder and the entire Ayar team. It has been a great to be working with the team over the past 4yrs. Full Press Release: https://bit.ly/3OIheUJ #optical #photonics #semiconductor #AI #HPC

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$100 Billion. A number that doesn’t just signal scale—it signals intent. Apple’s latest pledge to invest $100B in U.S. manufacturing isn’t just a headline—it’s a seismic shift in how tech giants are rethinking proximity, resilience, and control. Add that to the $500B already committed, and we’re looking at a $600B bet on domestic reinvention. This isn’t just about factories. It’s about: • AI server infrastructure in Houston • A manufacturing academy in Detroit • 20,000 new R&D roles across the country • And a strategic response to $800M+ in tariff costs last quarter alone Apple’s move reframes the narrative: from reactive reshoring to proactive category leadership. At DEDZA, we’ve been exploring how protective storytelling and material science can shape trust. This moment feels like a masterclass in both. When the stakes are global, the response must be molecular. Resilience isn’t just a theme—it’s a strategy. #Apple #Manufacturing #InnovationStrategy #Resilience #AIInfrastructure #MadeInUSA #ProductStrategy #MaterialScience #StrategicBranding #Dedza #EngineeredForTheUnknown #CategoryLeadership #RethinkRebuildReclaim

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