Register for SOSV’s 2026 Deep Tech Summit

Our friends at SOSV are hosting their annual Deep Tech Summit on November 4-6, which will bring together 100+ iconic speakers and 5,000+ attendees to explore what’s next in AI for the Physical World, Human Health, and Climate Resilience. Hear from Nobel Laureate and CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, Harvard longevity researcher David Sinclair, MIT's Russ Tedrake, DCVC’s Matt Ocko and many more. The event is free and virtual.

>>> RSVP FOR SOSV DEEP TECH SUMMIT

“I see three major trends shaping the next phase of climate tech.

First, new technologies enabled by modularity and declining cost curves. Modularity is one of the key reasons solar became the cheapest form of electricity humans have ever produced. It has the ability to mass-manufacture standardized units and deploy them rapidly.

Second, new sources of project financing and non-dilutive capital to support climate tech startups as they scale from first commercial plant to serial deployment. Access to these capital sources is becoming a key differentiator.

Third, shifting customer bases. It’s not just climate-focused buyers anymore. The Department of Defense and other sectors are increasingly interested in technologies that happen to have climate benefits — advanced rare earth element refining, next-generation uranium enrichment or distributed energy systems — because they deliver strategic advantages: better performance, lower cost and supply chain resilience.”

>>> READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

AI will make it possible to design and build organisms from scratch

“On October 7th, the Virtual Biology Initiative (VBI), a project to collect the data needed to create predictive models of how cells behave and change, announced that it had received commitments worth $800m since its launch in April.

The VBI’s goals are medical. Predictive models will let researchers design more effective drugs that are more likely to pass successfully through clinical trials. But, if that works, future generations of models might be used to design modified versions of existing organisms, such as crop plants—and perhaps, eventually, entirely new living things.

The technology that has made such advances conceivable is deep learning, wherein large neural networks are trained to tackle complex problems. It is this technique that underpins the foundation models that power the chatbots marketed by firms such as Anthropic, Google and OpenAI. To such models, the long-chain molecules at the heart of biology (nucleic acids and proteins) are no different from the chains of words in human writing. Letting foundation models loose on them was thus an obvious idea. And it is proving extraordinarily productive.” (via The Economist)

• Cambridge Heavy Industries has been quietly building a desktop fusion device
• Google's quantum Willow chip may be able to grow 'magic states'
• Alta Resource Technologies refines rare earth elements using proteins
• Spatial Biology Moves Toward Translation
• NASA Signs Space Nuclear Pact, Says Moon Base Is Ahead of Schedule
• Army sent balloon swarms to Middle East to support CENTCOM operations

“Elon Musk has revealed Tesla's latest model, which he claims will be the world's first flying car, using technology from his aerospace company SpaceX to "basically fly like a rocket".

The billionaire, who hosted a demonstration of the Tesla Roadster 2 at the SpaceX rocket development and testing facility in Texas, said the sports car could go from 0 to 60mph in a record time of less than a second and had thrusters." (via The Guardian)

• Zinc-air batteries gain new momentum with long-lasting catalyst
• Tiny droplets form soft networks for brain-inspired computing
• Ultrafast oxide-ion conductors offer route to low-temperature fuel cells
• Eye-inspired cameras help new system detect fast-moving drones in complex skies
• AI agents develop their own 'artificial natural language' to communicate about complex data
• A flash of light opens a new route to efficient, lightweight semiconductors
• Tiny chip uses ultrasound-powered microbubbles to steer fluid flow in real time
• A light-activated morphine derivative relieves pain in mice
• Turning Process Understanding Into Control of Lipid Nanoparticles

• OrbiMed raises $3B for global biotech and biopharma venture investing, including $1B+ for Asia
• ICON raises $200M Series D for 3D-printed robotic home construction systems
• Soufflé Therapeutics raises $135M Series B for siRNA medicines delivered beyond the liver
• Salience Labs raises $125M Series B for silicon-photonic optical circuit switches linking AI datacenter GPUs
• Stand raises $70M Series C for physics-based insurance for catastrophe-exposed homes
• Mueon raises $65M Series A for modular 3D compute and memory building blocks for AI data centers
• Albert raises $55M Series B for a chemistry-native AI operating system for R&D
• Rabot Energy raises $50M Series B for aggregating home batteries into a virtual power plant
• Sabi raises $50M seed for a wearable cap that translates imagined speech into AI commands
• Ultra Robotics raises $50M Series A for AI-powered dual-arm e-commerce packing robots
• Sirona Medical raises $40M Series D for cloud-native AI radiology operating system
• Altay Therapeutics raises $37M Series A for oral DUX4-inhibiting drug for muscular dystrophy
• Sava Technologies raises $36M Series B for needle-free continuous glucose microsensor wearable
• Scimplify raises $25M for AI-accelerated specialty chemicals and critical materials sourcing
• Kapta Space raises $24M Series A for low-cost space-based moving target radar payloads
• Acta Pharmaceuticals raises $24M seed for gamma-secretase modulators targeting Alzheimer's early intervention
• Undecimal Bio raises $18M for siRNA therapies targeting diseases beyond the liver
• Switched Source raises $17M for dynamic phase-balancing devices that unlock capacity on existing utility grids
• Epyr raises €15M Series A for firebrick thermal storage electrifying industrial heat
• BioConsortia raises $15M for nitrogen-fixing and biostimulant microbial seed treatments
• HyLight raises $14.5M Series A for hydrogen-powered autonomous airships inspecting power lines and pipelines
• Ubitium raises $14M seed for a single chip combining sensing, AI inference and control for autonomous machines
• seragy raises €12M for molecular fingerprinting of pathological protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases
• Skopos Bio raises $12M seed for radioactive molecules targeting hard-to-treat cancers
• Mana Battery raises $10.15M seed for anode-free, sodium-ion battery cells
• HydRegen raises $8M Series A for enzyme-based catalysts replacing precious metals in chemical manufacturing
• NEU Battery Materials raises $7.6M for electrochemical recycling of lithium iron phosphate batteries
• Giraffe Bio raises $6.4M Seed for mine-specific biomolecules that boost copper flotation recovery
• Phinity Labs raises $5.2M Seed for AI agents that autonomously design, verify, and tape out custom chips
• OlsAro raises €5M seed for AI-driven salt-tolerant wheat genetics
• Golbriak Space raises €4M seed for laser communication terminals for satellites and aircraft
• Silvia Bio raises £3M seed for cell-profiling platform that boosts biologic drug yields
• Monopulse raises $2.2M for GPS-jam-resistant reconnaissance drones for NATO militaries

America didn't lose its rare earth industry, it sold it / Woman arrested after blocking delivery robot in Center City Philadelphia / How bionic eyes are becoming a reality / Is 'Attention' the Essence of Intelligence? / Anthropic warns of AI 'worms' spreading across smart gadgets / AI worms, 'major' incident fears spur safety calls at industry summit / An Anthropic AI model sent a false homicide tip to Philadelphia police / Batteries are now cheaper than natural gas turbines used at many data centers / Science Corporation implants its vision-restoring chip in its first Stargardt disease patient / Justice Department says North Koreans have infiltrated dozens of U.S. companies / Electric vehicle sales in the U.S. are showing signs of life / They War-Gamed Dimming the Sun. It Went Even Worse Than You Think / Lettuce engineered to produce meat proteins / AI labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models / The US military's race to make fake blood / The Politics of Solar Energy Are Getting Weird, Mean, and a Little MAGA / AI Came for Math. Now It's Chasing the Rest of Science / Could AI help scientists with their paperwork? / How much more can nuclear power plants give? / Google DeepMind AI crystallography database includes near duplicate structures and unrealistic compounds / How NASA is thinking about a moon base / Reprogramming robots in the mud: How Army Special Ops trains its new robot technicians