Industrial Vanguard Vol. 35

Introduction

Reporting from an early morning at Newcastle, UK airport. This week, Washington doubles down on upstream resilience: the Pentagon is set to stockpile cobalt and the administration may route CHIPS funds to critical minerals. On the frontier, graphene electronics, automated exploration, and franchise-style biochar production pull in fresh capital joined by new magnet and defense bets. In energy, carbon-to-SAF, grid capacity discovery, and AI-driven operations see momentum, while Big Tech leans harder into SMRs. Product and design teams get a lift from new AI orgs, CAD milestones, and regional quantum pushes. Factory floors keep automating (with humans still essential), supply chains experiment with decentralized freight and nine-figure revamps, and recycling advances from batteries to organics and critical metals. Markets cool, immigration dynamics reshape labor supply, and U.S.–China dialogues tentatively restart amid a global AI talent land-grab.

Materials

• DoD to buy up to $500M of cobalt to harden defense supply chains and reduce single-country risk. Read More

• CHIPS twist: White House weighs $2B for critical minerals to secure semiconductor inputs. Read More

• Paragraf raises $55M (Series C) to scale graphene-based chips and sensors. Read More

• Hades Mining raises €5.5M (pre-seed) for automated subsurface exploration and resource modeling. Read More

• Terraton targets a “McDonald’s of biochar” rollout to standardize carbon-negative materials. Read More

• 1789 Capital reportedly backing defense & rare-earth magnet startups to counter China. Read More

Energy

• RenewCO₂ raises $5M to convert captured CO₂ into SAF-grade molecules. Read More

• Yottar maps hidden grid capacity to speed large-load interconnections (AI + data licensing). Read More

• AiGent raises $6M for AI-assisted energy optimization and trading workflows. Read More

• Splight raises $12.4M (SAFE) to orchestrate distributed renewables and reduce curtailment. Read More

• Amazon + X-energy partner with a Korean consortium to advance SMRs serving U.S. data centers. Read More

Design & Development

• GM builds a Silicon Valley–style AI team to accelerate software-defined vehicles and autonomy. Read More

• Onshape hits 200 releases—cadence as a competitive moat for cloud CAD/PLM. Read More

• $25M quantum initiative (NM): Roadrunner Venture Studios seeds a regional quantum stack. Read More

Manufacturing

• Modern data ops for Industrial AI—how clean pipelines unlock predictive quality & throughput. Read More

• Hyundai’s new Georgia plant: high automation still relies on skilled human work. Read More

• Dirac raises $10.7M (industrial simulation/control scaling). Read More

• Surface Design Solutions raises $365K for next-gen coatings/process improvements. Read More

Supply Chain & Logistics

• Oway (YC) raises $4M for decentralized, marketplace-driven “Uber for freight.” Read More

• Colgate-Palmolive launches up to $300M end-to-end productivity & supply chain revamp. Read More

• Nauta raises $7M to layer AI across global logistics workflows. Read More

Recycling

• PNE opens flagship battery recycling facility in South Carolina (U.S. circularity push). Read More

• Battery recyclers under new policy: risks and opportunities in the Trump era. Read More

• Closed Loop Partners acquires Agri-Cycle to scale organics circularity. Read More

• EverMetal unveils a critical-metals recycling platform—aimed at secure domestic feedstocks. Read More

Venture Capital & Private Equity

• The national-security case for bigger deep-tech bets continues to strengthen. Read More

• A new PE playbook aims to revitalize U.S. manufacturing via modernization and consolidation. Read More

Markets, Policy, & News

• Tech rally cools as investors reassess growth vs. rates and AI spend. Read More

• Immigration decline reshapes U.S. labor markets and wage dynamics. Read More

• New Navy facilities signal posture shifts for the maritime force. Read More

• How China became an innovation powerhouse—and what it means for competitors. Read More

• Talks resume: China’s top trade negotiator heads to the U.S. Read More

• AI talent premiums surge—twenty-somethings with LLM skills command six-figure pay. Read More

Thanks for reading Industrial Vanguard. If you find this useful, please forward to a friend or colleague. We scan materials, energy, design, manufacturing, logistics, recycling, and capital markets—distilling the signal so operators and investors can move first.