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Climate Tech Braces for the Dry Season
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By Yuliya Chernova, WSJ Pro
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Good day. President Trump took his first stab at dismantling climate policies as soon as he took office on Monday. Climate venture investors are looking for ways to navigate the new reality.
While the federal government is taking a step back from propping up climate tech, there are dynamics in the economy and geopolitics that will keep some startups in this sector thriving, said Shomik Dutta, co-founder and managing partner of climate venture fund Overture.
Pain points that Dutta said climate-tech startups can help with are the surging demand for power generation, the shift by the U.S. away from reliance on Chinese minerals, and extreme weather events.
“The vitamins in climate will have a harder time. But painkillers will always get funded,” he said.
So which technologies are “vitamins”— things that are beneficial but not solving immediate business challenges?
Companies that focus on carbon emissions reduction could struggle, Dutta said. “Capital-intensive projects that do not pencil out without government subsidy” could run into difficulties, too, such as those in green steel or green cement, he said.
One strategy climate companies might do well to employ is to change their messaging to de-emphasize decarbonization and focus on other benefits of their offerings, Dutta said.
“We don’t need decarbonization or sustainability in the first sentence to proceed. It could be an afterthought,” Dutta said. “We are going to have a different vernacular, we’ll still achieve the same objectives.”
Climate investors are keenly watching for what Trump might do next on the Inflation Reduction Act, said Dutta, legislation that he had promised to undermine and that many climate startups took advantage of. “What the treatment will be will be an important question,” Dutta said about the IRA. “Billions of dollars are on the line.”
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And now on to the news...
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Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, was at the inauguration Monday of President Trump. PHOTO: PRESS POOL
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Tech leaders pledge up to $500 billion in AI investment in U.S. Some of the world’s most prominent names in technology are pledging to pour as much as half a trillion dollars into building artificial-intelligence infrastructure in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reports. The joint venture, known as Stargate, is led by the ChatGPT maker OpenAI and the global tech investor SoftBank Group. It will build data centers for OpenAI. The database company Oracle and MGX, an investor backed by the United Arab Emirates, are also equity partners in the
venture.
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The companies are committing $100 billion to the venture and plan to invest up to $500 billion over the next four years. The plans were announced Tuesday at a White House ceremony with President Trump.
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The $100 billion sum includes projects that the companies already announced and initiated under the Biden administration, people familiar with the matter said.
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$15 Billion
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The market value of the $TRUMP coin peaked on Sunday at almost $15 billion.
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Crypto Thought Trump Would Bring It Legitimacy. Then He Launched a Meme Coin.
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The crypto industry eagerly awaited Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Now, it’s reeling after the president and first lady launched a pair of meme coins, WSJ reports. Dubbed $TRUMP and $MELANIA, the tokens have no economic purpose—their value is largely based on the popularity of internet memes. The market cap of the president’s coin has soared to $8.4 billion since Friday night’s launch, while the first lady’s token is worth about $800 million, according to CoinMarketCap.
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By selling coins known for their speculative nature and extreme volatility, the president has undermined the credibility that the industry has worked hard to build in recent years, some crypto executives and investors say.
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Defense and Space Company Voyager Technologies Files to Go Public
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Defense-and-space company Voyager Technologies has confidentially filed to go public, WSJ reports. Voyager is expected to be valued between $2 billion and $3 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The Denver-based firm is among the private companies developing a commercial space station with NASA funding. Voyager, which has around 1,000 employees, also has a defense and national security business.
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Last year, Voyager announced a strategic partnership to integrate Palantir’s AI capabilities into its defense work. Palantir is also an investor. Voyager has teamed up with Airbus, Mitsubishi and Hilton on Starlab, the private space station it is planning for low-Earth orbit.
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The Internet Should Be ‘Neutral,’ but Congress Should Not
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A federal appeals court’s rejection this month of the Federal Communications Commission’s decade-plus push for stronger oversight of the internet was a crushing defeat for “net neutrality” as it has been pursued since the Obama administration.
But the ruling could also be seen as the latest indictment of the inability of Congress to regulate at anywhere near the speed of tech.
It has been more than a generation since Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, its first and so-far last really big swing on the internet, and that was a modernization of the Depression-era Communications Act of 1934. Software, meanwhile, has been eating the world, as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously said.
The adoption of artificial intelligence is on the rise, stirring questions and concerns. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) held bipartisan information-gathering forums in 2023 for the Senate with an eye toward passing broad AI legislation, but nothing yet has come to pass.
Read the full column.
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People
Roots Automation, a developer of a generative AI model for insurance, appointed Sunny Chen as chief financial officer and Deirdre Grubbs as chief marketing officer. Chen was previously CFO at Angle Health Insurance, while Grubbs was CMO at Venminder.
Artificial intelligence training and operations startup Invisible Technologies appointed Matthew Fitzpatrick as chief executive officer. He was previously global head of QuantumBlack Labs.
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Fundment, a London-based provider of a tech platform for financial advisers with high net worth clients, raised £45 million in Series C funding led by Highland Europe.
Rhino.ai, an AI-powered enterprise platform, landed $50 million in Series A funding led by Koch Disruptive Technologies.
Vertice, a London-headquartered spend optimization platform, scored $50 million in Series C funding led by Lakestar.
Mitiga, an SaaS and cloud threat detection, investigation and response provider, secured $30 million in Series B financing. SYN Ventures led the round, with Robert Rodriguez joining the company’s board.
Ecoplanet, a Munich-based energy management software startup, closed a €16 million Series A round led by EQT Ventures.
Kraaft, a messaging app for managing construction projects, picked up €13 million in Series A funding led by Dawn Capital.
Package.ai, a provider of customer engagement and last-mile logistics technology to big box retailers and service providers, snagged $14 million in Series A funding. Susquehanna Growth Equity led the round, with Partner Noa Wolfson joining the board.
Gravity, a San Francisco-based carbon accounting and energy management platform, fetched $13 million in Series A funding led by Ansa Capital. Managing Partner Marco DeMeireles will join the board.
Bedrock Energy, an Austin, Texas-based geothermal heating and cooling startup, obtained $12 million in Series A funding led by Titanium Ventures.
Belfry Software, a New York-based operations platform for security guard services providers, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Base10 Partners.
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Sales of iPhones in China during the quarter were weaker than the overall Chinese market, the data showed. PHOTO: BILLY H.C. KWOK/GETTY IMAGES
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