Future Tech
Los Angeles defence start-up Furientis, founded by former Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit engineers, has raised a $25 million seed round led by Benchmark to build interceptors at a fraction of the cost of legacy systems.
Aravind Kumar
Author
Apple is reportedly working with LG on a range of smart home devices, including a lock, thermostat, doorbell and security cameras, to be sold under the LG brand, in a move that would put it in more direct competition with Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest.
Tesla's Austin Cybercab fleet has grown from 45 to 169 registered vehicles a month after launch, but riders report long waits and pickup errors, and Waymo remains far ahead in scale.
California-based Varda Space Industries has raised a $251 million Series D led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital at a reported $1.6 billion valuation, taking total funding to $598 million as it prepares to launch two more reentry capsules on SpaceX's Transporter-18 mission.
TakeMe2Space, SatLeo Labs and EON Space Labs flew payloads on SpaceX's Transporter-18 mission, bringing in-orbit AI processing and India's first dedicated commercial thermal payload into space.
Tesla delivered more than 486,500 vehicles in the third quarter, topping Wall Street expectations, even as its US sales fell nearly 20% year on year. Growth in Europe, China and smaller markets offset the domestic weakness.
Rivian delivered 19,248 vehicles in the third quarter, up 45% year on year, as its cheaper R2 SUV completed its first full quarter. On the same day it recalled a small number of R2s over under-tightened battery fasteners.
Google's first Project Suncatcher satellite, carrying four Trillium TPUs powered by about 1 kilowatt of solar panels, is scheduled to launch on 1 October on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare. The mission is a survival test for AI chips in orbit and a first step towards solar-powered data centres in space.
Zenithon, a London startup founded by two fusion researchers, has disclosed $10 million in funding from investors including Backed, Lunar Ventures, Seraphim Space, MMC Ventures and SOSV to build AI models that simulate extreme physics far faster than conventional methods.