The Saturday Morning Newsletter #60
Dissecting 1800s Russian Nihilism, Who Owns Outer Space Rights, and $300B Needed in Forest Pledges
This Week I’m Tracking: 17 developments across the sectors shaping our future
Reading Time: 6 minutes of curated insights
Your weekly pulse check: The most important events in venture capital, energy, space, economics, intellectual property, philosophy, and more. I distill the most important developments across sectors I track, saving you hours of research while keeping you ahead of the curve.
New to these updates? They pair with our bi-weekly Brainwave analyses for comprehensive sector coverage. Wednesday’s deep dive explored the overlooked threats to our space future - catch up here.
Let’s dive in.
Description: Mainspring Energy is a developer of linear power generators.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Mainspring Energy recently raised $258M in venture capital funding. Mainspring is developing linear power solutions capable of delivering local power solutions to meet the capacity, resilience, and cost needs of communities. This model has already been proven in some cities, providing flexible power generation to meet fluctuations in demand.
#2: True Anomaly
Description: True Anomaly is developing autonomous spacecraft and associated systems.
Why Is This Company Interesting? True Anomaly recently raised $260M in venture capital funding. True Anomaly is a pure-play space defense company. They’ve created a tactical fighter interceptor for contesting in space environments, something we haven’t needed as a civilization yet, but will inevitably need in the future. How soon will that be? It’s unclear but it could easily be sooner than we imagined.
#3: Hexium
Description: Hexium is using laser technology to separate lithium.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Hexium recently raised $9.5M in venture capital funding. Hexium uses atomic vapor laser isotope separation technology to separate nuclear isotopes, enabling them to collect pure samples. They’ve already received over $2B in government funding to help prove out their model of a domestic supply of pure isotopes for nuclear energy.
#4: Near Space Labs
Description: Near Space Labs offers high-resolution imagery of Earth.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Near Space Labs recently raised $20M in venture capital funding. Near Space Labs provides high-resolution, high-frequency imagery from Earth’s stratosphere. Companies can now monitor their assets in real time, all from carbon-free solutions. This is an ideal solution for insurance, government, conservation, transportation, and other sectors.
Description: ARK Capture Solutions is a carbon capture startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? ARK Capture Solutions recently raised $2.2M in venture capital funding. ARK claims it has developed the only effective technology allowing low CO2 capture costs, even at low concentrations in flue gas. They outperform traditional carbon capture solutions with their modular electric technology.
AP News: Groups Sue EPA Over Program Cancelation
Several groups and nonprofits filed a lawsuit against the EPA for canceling a $7B Solar for All program intended to make solar power accessible for more than 900,000 lower-income Americans. They say the cancellation is illegal and are looking for a reversal. They’re specifically arguing that the law only revoked climate grants not yet awarded by the EPA, and that these solar funds were already awarded.
WTOP News: Solar and Wind Power Have Grown Faster Than Electricity Demand
Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year for the first time ever. Solar generation grew by 31% in H1’25, where wind energy grew by 8%. It is possible for the world to slowly wean off polluting sources of power as new supply can outpace new demand.
The New York Times: Fed Rescinds Mandate That Banks Plan for Climate Risks
Federal regulators have revoked a requirement that the nation’s largest banks factor climate risks into their long-term planning, a Biden-era rule. This is the latest in a string of climate change reversals. Critics warned the change could cost the US economy in the years ahead, as researchers estimate that continued warming of the Earth could cost the global economy more than $38T each year.
The New York Times: To Meed Forest Pledges, Spending Must Triple
A new UN report found that the world isn’t spending enough to ensure forests remain healthy. To meet goals, annual global spend needs to triple to $300B by 2030. Forests provide homes to more than 80% of animals, plants, and insects, so protecting them is vital. Around 25M acres are destroyed each year, a trend that continues to increase over time.
PR Newswire: Inversion Unveils Arc
Inversion, an aerospace and defense technology company, unveiled Arc, its flagship space-based delivery vehicle. This spacecraft is designed to deliver cargo from orbit to anywhere on Earth in under an hour. This sort of technology could dramatically change the space environment, enabling medical products and other technologies to be deployed into space and rapidly returned.
The New York Times: Warning: Our Stock Market Is Looking Like A Bubble
Many are starting to warn that the stock market is being driven by a large AI bubble that threatens to collapse. No one could be certain, but the investments made have been astronomical, and few believe the underlying fundamentals support these outsized valuations and funding rounds. The AI investment hype cycle is fitting the traditional pattern of a bubble so far, but we’ll have to see how the next year(s) go.
American Legislative Exchange Council: IP Innovation is America’s Competitive Edge
I haven’t read much about the history of intellectual property in the U.S. yet, so this article was perfect. Early on, America’s founders recognized the value of protecting intellectual property in promoting innovation. George Washington urged Congress to provide encouragement to inventions to “promote the progress of science and useful arts.” Other founders shared this belief, writing intellectual property rights into some of the original documents and laws of the U.S.
World Economic Forum: Who Owns What When It Comes to AI, IP, & Creativity
Current legal frameworks for intellectual property are built on the assumption that creativity requires human consciousness. As such, AI isn’t considered a part of this, leading courts to reinforce the human-centered approach to IP protection. Currently, AI is viewed as an enabler of human creativity, not a creator itself.
Taylor Wessing: IP and Space
This article gives a good breakdown of how intellectual property affects the space industry, especially considering where international borders start and stop, and where space begins. There are no international laws or other regulations that discuss intellectual property relating to outer space, potentially creating a gap in the market for actors to exploit.
IAI News: Dostoevsky, Nihilism, and the Fight For Human Nature
Nihilism originated in Russia in the 1800s. Traditional definitions of the word don’t perfectly apply to the original Russian nihilists, who believed that they knew just how to build the perfect society. They believed science would usher in a utopia and should be worshipped. In their seeking to explain away human complexity with scientific certainty, did they misunderstand true human nature?
Fast Company: 4 Mindsets for the Future
Here are the 4 mindsets we can use to better approach the future:
Could Futurism - optimistic futurism, built on growth and change
Should Futurism - focused on finding some certainty and assuredness in the future
Might Futurism - plotting multiple scenarios out
Don’t Futurism - what might go wrong or things we don’t want to do
Jacobin: The Philosophical Case for a 4-Day Workweek
In 1930, famous economist John Maynard Keynes estimated that in 2030, the average workweek would be only 15 hours.
However, today’s environment couldn’t be further from that. Many are working harder than ever, trying to make ends meet. Work always plays a role in shaping our political and ethical views of the world.
Similarly, we live in a cycle where what we imagine is somewhat determined by how we live, and how we live is dependent on how we imagine. Pursuing individual work can overcome some of the traditional limitations of work that are constraints to this imagination, causing a transformative effect.
People are still attached to work as the material benefits decline, but what’s more is that people use work to measure their worth and standing, which can cause negative impacts on their lives.
Long story short, we should be considering our relationship with work and whether it is healthy. Maybe you need to cut down to 4 days a week.
That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup.
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Drew Jackson
Founder & Writer
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Excellent rundown, mate. The True Anomaly bit on space defense realy got me thinking. What if that 'inevitable' future also forces unprecedented global governance in space?