Hello!

Welcome to The Saturday Morning Newsletter, a concise and casual digest of current events, optimistic news stories, and other interesting tidbits to round out your week. The concept is simple: 20 articles, essays, companies, ideas, podcasts, videos, or thoughts that caught my attention this week for their potential to significantly impact our future.

I want this to be a collaborative effort, so if you see examples of things that truly impact our future, let me know here. I’ll give you credit for sharing them.

If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with friends, colleagues, and family.

Let’s get started.

---

#1: FarmDroid

Description: FarmDroid is a developer of solar-powered agricultural robots.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? FarmDroid recently raised $10.5M in venture capital funding. Autonomous farming robots are a newer innovation, combining robots and renewable energy sources to produce a high-capacity, highly efficient solution to a traditionally manual (and now tractor) labor issue.

#2: Terralayr

Description: Terralayr is an energy storage provider capable of meeting demand fluctuations.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? Terralayr recently raised $84M in venture capital funding. Their technology provides a continuous and sustainable power supply so homes and businesses don’t have to worry about renewable energy unpredictability. Terralayr smooths out energy production through utility-scale batteries, providing stability to all customers.

#3: Universal Fuel Technologies

Description: Universal Fuel Technologies is a developer of sustainable aviation fuel.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? Universal Fuel Technologies (UFT) recently raised $3M in venture capital funding. Planes have recently become the subject of many energy transition conversations as people demand sustainable, lower-emitting fuel solutions. At a lower cost, with lower emissions, UFT’s technology spearheads the renewable, efficient transition for planes. What’s more, their fuel technology can be used with traditional refinery equipment, so it’s easy to plug and play.

#4: BasiGo

Description: BasiGo is a Kenya-based startup developing electric buses.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? BasiGo recently raised $24M in venture capital funding. With 43 buses already on the road, BasiGo is aiming to electrify the 1M+ buses across Africa, providing an energy-efficient solution to places in need. Their 43 buses have already carried over 4M passengers, a large feat. As Africa is home to the fastest-growing populations, modern solutions like BasiGo help pave the way for future growth and prosperity.

#5: Lumen Orbit

Description: Lumen Orbit is a developer of solar-powered space-based data centers.

Why Is This Company Interesting?? Lumen Orbit recently raised $10M in venture capital funding. Their mission is simple: AI developments have increased the need for new data centers and new energy projects to power them. The solution: orbital data centers to avoid Earth-based constraints. At the forefront of innovation, Lumen Orbit is aiming to commercialize space in a new area, capitalizing on current market trends.

Reddit: Electric Vehicles Study

About 3 in 10 Americans say they would seriously consider purchasing an electric vehicle based on a Pew Research Center study from May 2024. It’s interesting to note that of the people with an electric vehicle already, that rate is around 6 in 10 people, or around double. That speaks volumes for the transition to continue, specifically that once you buy your first electric vehicle, you’re more likely to want to buy another one in the future. There’s something there that’s beneficial enough to make people want to come back.

Bloomberg: A Wind Power Crisis is Holding Back the World’s Green Energy Goal

Solar deployment is accelerating, yet wind energy isn’t keeping up the same pace. Solar installations are forecasted to increase by 34% in 2024, yet wind is only expected to increase by 5%. Bloomberg includes the following graph, which showcases energy growth over time:

Renew Economy: World’s Biggest Wind Turbine

A Chinese manufacturer says it has completed a 26MW offshore wind turbine this week. This turbine alone would be enough to power 55,000 homes. This continues the trend of innovative wind turbine designs, hopefully pushing wind energy to become more efficient and cost-effective (solving the previous problems noted in the Bloomberg article).

CNBC: Why Big Tech is Turning to Nuclear to Power its Energy-Intensive AI Ambitions

Large tech firms are turning to alternative power sources like nuclear as a way to fulfill growing energy demands from data centers. The Senior Director for Energy and Climate at Google stated “The grid needs these kinds of clean, reliable sources of energy that can support the build out of these technologies… We feel like nuclear can play an important role in helping meet our demand, and helping meet our demand cleanly, in a way that’s more around the clock.”

The Independent: Elon Musk Wants to Send 30k More Starlink Satellites into Space

Many astronomers are pushing back against Elon’s latest request to put 30k more satellites into space. SpaceX officials claim the purpose is to bring high-speed internet to all Americans (and billions across the globe). Astronomers claim more satellites in space will threaten other space objects, increasing debris, and harming the ability to observe other planets and stars. Solutions proposed include building non-reflective panels to reduce light pollution, but it’s unclear now what the outcome of this potential venture will be.

Space.com: Vast Space Unveils Haven-2

The International Space Station (ISS) is planned to retire in 2030. Private companies are vying to see their space stations become the world’s first commercial orbital laboratory. Vast Space unveiled Haven-2 as a proposed successor to the ISS. Vast’s focus is to win the NASA Commercial LEO Destination contract to build the successor to the ISS. The Haven-1, the precursor to Haven-2 is planned to launch in 2025.

The New York Times: Space: The Final Fashion Frontier

Space commercialization had its most recent entrant: Prada. Prada recently collaborated on the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit, the spacesuit that NASA’s astronauts will wear when they walk on the moon in 2026. Talk about marketing - if this works out, the entire world might be watching the next human land on the moon wearing Prada.

Ars Technica: Solar Power From Space?

Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood, began space startup Aetherflux to promote space innovation and make an impact on our lives here on Earth. The goal is to put satellites in space that will capture solar power and then use an infrared laser to transmit this power back to Earth. This idea is all still theoretical at this point, but if it works it could provide opportunities to commercialize space like never before.

Investors Business Daily: Sam Altman Startup Explodes 150% This Month

Oklo, the nuclear power startup backed by OpenAI (Sam Altman), has grown more than 150% in October as major tech companies have decided to double down on nuclear to fuel data centers and AI. Other nuclear energy-related players have already been on a tear since late September, and the growth is only expected to continue in the future. Now is the time to be bullish on energy.

Pitchbook: Venture Debt Activity Picks Up in Europe

Europe has seen a rebound in venture debt dealmaking, with YTD 2024 already surpassing all of 2023. At this rate, 2024 is projected to be the third-highest year on record for venture debt. Mature startups are seeking venture debt, increasing deal sizes. As of June 2024, the median venture debt funding stood at $2.2M, compared to $1.1M in 2023.

JD Supra: Intellectual Property Law in the Age of Generative AI

The surge of generative AI tools has created many intellectual property legal issues. In August 2023, the US District Court for DC reaffirmed an earlier decision that found Generative AI output, without sufficient human contribution, is not copyrightable. Earlier court decisions found that an AI system cannot be an inventor of a patent (it needs to be a human). In October 2023, President Biden signed an Executive Order mandating the IP offices to examine and publish guidance regarding AI in the inventive process.

IP Watchdog: The Most Important Issues Facing the IP Industry

Professionals from a variety of backgrounds came together to discuss their concerns with the future of the intellectual property system in the United States. To summarize the key points, they are worried about the following: Fluctuations in the IP system, the link between IP rights and innovation outcomes, IP trust and confidence, double patenting, early-stage inventions, and more.

Luxury Launches: Saudi Crown Prince’s Dream Project Neom Update

I would recommend this visualization for those of you who haven’t seen this proposed mammoth of a project. Dubbed “The Line”, project Neom is aiming to build a linear city spanning ~10,200 square miles. It’s a $1.5T project that’s advancing extremely quickly, so quickly that it’s currently consuming around 20% of the world’s steel output. That’s crazy. In context, think of all the steel and building the United States does in a year. This is 3x that! Humanity is still yet to see what the long-term effect of this city project will be, but at this rate, it’s set to be monumental (it could be a modern wonder of the world).

New York Times: A Major Push to Protect Nature is Happening Now

The largest United Nations biodiversity conference in history is happening now. The issue at hand: biodiversity is declining faster now than at any time in human history. A million species are in danger of extinction, including many common species. The main driver of this decline is habitat loss, usually when land is taken for agriculture. In the ocean, the main driver is overfishing. Solutions proposed at this conference will hopefully shape the next decade or more of public policy and government action.

Financial Times: We May Have Passed Peak Obesity

Initial studies are coming in, showing that obesity is declining in the US for the first time in a very long time. Some scholars are attributing these trends mainly to the introduction of GLP-1s (e.g. Ozempic, etc.). These trends have just begun, but there is hope for general levels of health in the United States to get slightly better over time.

See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,

Drew Jackson

Twitter: @brainwavesdotme

Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com

Submit any interesting articles/links for The Saturday Morning Newsletter here.

Thank you for reading The Saturday Morning Newsletter by Brainwaves. Please ask your friends, colleagues, and family members to sign up.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content are my own and do not represent the views of any of the companies I currently work for or have previously worked for. This content does not contain financial advice - it is for informational and educational purposes only. Investing contains risks and readers should conduct their own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Any sponsorship or endorsements are noted and do not affect any editorial content produced.