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Why does this category—often called hard tech—matter? Because incremental improvements are insufficient—we need bold founders solving the world’s most pressing challenges. We want investors with patient capital and enormous vision. Sam Altman, one of the most prolific investors in this category, said it well in a tweet this week:
Brilliant people, unbelievable startups, urgent challenges: that’s The Deep End. Below are a few stories to kick off issue #1.
A peek into the future as Sam Altman sees it
In a Q&A with Sam Altman last week, he opens up about Helion, his fusion company, Hermeus, his hypersonic aircraft company, and of course, OpenAI, where he serves as co-founder and CEO. Watching the interview left me thinking: how many of Altman’s bets could pay off? He has taken a lot of big swings, and swiftly become the man you shouldn’t bet against.
The dawn of battery-powered urban flight
Freethink released a stunning video on electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), the battery-electric aircraft that promise to transform how we travel. The video heavily features Archer and its aircraft Midnight, and addresses the challenges around public adoption. Archer CEO Adam Goldstein called it “the best piece I've ever seen on eVTOL.”
$50 Million deployed to get more value out of lithium
Decarbonizing and electrifying our world will require massive amounts of lithium. Investor Jeremy Grantham predicts that “if we mined every ounce of lithium in the know reserves, it would probably amount to only 5% to ‘green’ the economy once.”
Summit Nanotech CEO Amanda Hall has been building what could be one of the most important players in the decarbonization space. Their method of Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) allows you to get more than double the yield out of a single lithium asset. They’re already in lithium-abundant Argentina and Chile.