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- Industrial Vanguard Vol. 24
Industrial Vanguard Vol. 24
Week of June 9, 2025
Joe Tenbusch
June 13, 2025
Introduction
The AI Agent Wave is Here.
In its latest batch, Y Combinator has gone all-in on AI agents, with nearly 50% of startups in the cohort building agentic tools or platforms (PitchBook). From autonomous interviewers to procurement bots, the agentic AI paradigm is rapidly industrializing tasks long reserved for humans.
That same spirit of acceleration is visible across this week’s trends:
• The nuclear fusion sector saw a record week of funding and momentum, with Proxima, Standard Nuclear, the World Bank, and geothermal players like Fervo and XGS moving forward.
• The rare earth magnet crisis deepened, halting auto production.
• AI and quantum breakthroughs are reshaping enterprise tools.
• Robotics in manufacturing, logistics, and humanoid applications surged.
• VC and PE markets remained active amid policy volatility.
Materials
Energy
LNG Boom Incoming. Read more
Runwise Raises $55M for Building Energy Optimization. Read more
Co-Power Raises €6.4M for Industrial Energy Resilience. Read more
Proxima Fusion Raises €130M Series A. Read more
Standard Nuclear Reboots from Startup Failure. Read more
World Bank Eyes Nuclear Sector Engagement. Read more
Fervo Energy Lands $206M for Geothermal. Read more
XGS Energy & Meta Partner on 150 MW Advanced Geothermal. Read more
Design & Development
IBM Acquires Seek AI and Opens NYC AI Accelerator. Read more
AMD Acquires Brium, Targets Nvidia. Read more
IBM Roadmaps Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer by 2029. Read more
Linear Raises at $1.25B Valuation. Read more
ai.work Raises $10M for Autonomous Enterprise Agents. Read more
Glean Hits $7.2B Valuation. Read more
Nvidia & Perplexity Team Up on European AI Push. Read more
Multiverse Computing Raises €189M. Read more
Outset Raises $17M to Build AI Interview Agents. Read more
Manufacturing
Anduril Raises $2.5B at $30.5B Valuation. Read more
Ransomware Attacks Surge 46% in Industry. Read more
Figure AI CEO Avoids BMW Deal Questions. Read more
Trump Signs Orders to Boost U.S. Drone Manufacturing. Read more
Renault Partners with Wandercraft Robotics. Read more
20 Ways Digital Twins Will Disrupt Manufacturing. Read more
GM Plans $4B in U.S. Manufacturing Investment. Read more
Bolo AI Raises $8.1M for Heavy Industry OS. Read more
RIIICO AI Raises $5M for Industrial Efficiency. Read more
Tesla Sues Over Optimus Trade Secret Theft. Read more
1X’s NEO Humanoid Gains Autonomy. Read more
Vassar Robotics Debuts $219 Robot Arm. Read more
Nominal Raises $75M for Defense Industrial Software. Read more
Sunrise Robotics Emerges with $8.5M to Democratize Factory Automation. Read more
Supply Chain & Logistics
Amazon to Test Humanoid Robots for Package Delivery. Read more
Kargo Raises $18.4M for Warehouse AI. Read more
Portless Raises $18M Amid De Minimis Demand Surge. Read more
Wing + Walmart Expand Drone Delivery to 100 Stores. Read more
ZeroRISC Raises $10M for Secure Open-Source Silicon. Read more
Pactum Raises $54M for AI Procurement Agents. Read more
Coco Robotics Raises $80M. Read more
Drones Everywhere. Read more
Plus Autonomous Truck Startup to Go Public via $1.2B SPAC. Read more
Warp Raises $10M for AI Freight Network. Read more
Recycling
Venture Capital & Private Equity
Saudi HUMAIN AI Plans $10B Venture Fund. Read more
Calpers Posts 11% PE Gain. Read more
Japan-U.S. Alliance Venture Fund Raises $250M. Read more
Private Credit Fundraising Slows. Read more
Yale Rushing to Sell Billions in PE. Read more
More Deep Tech Investors Needed. Read more
Amazon & Startups. Read more
Markets & Policy
Ford CFO on Rare Earths, Tariffs, and Cost Strategy. Read more
U.S. Trade Deficit Cut in Half Amid Record Drop in Imports. Read more
Trump Unleashes 'American Drone Dominance' via New Orders. Read more
Auto Parts Supplier Marelli Files for Chapter 11. Read more
Aiera Closes Series B; Wall Street Giants Join Board. Read more
OpenAI Taps Google Cloud to Handle Surging Demand. Read more
U.S. Ports Expect Import Surge Amid Temporary Tariff Reprieve. Read more
Carmakers Using Stealth Price Hikes to Offset Trump Tariffs. Read more
Dana to Sell Off-Highway Unit to Allison Transmission for $2.7B. Read more
Clean Energy Investment Hits Record Highs, Continues Strong Momentum. Read more
Thank you for reading the Industrial Vanguard newsletter.
Each week, we track the critical shifts reshaping materials, energy, design, manufacturing, supply chains, and recycling We deliver a signal through the noise of the industrial technology landscape.
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Stay tuned, we’ll be back next week with another edition.