Industrial Vanguard Vol. 40

Introduction

Detroit was buzzing this past week with two gatherings that underscored the region’s growing momentum in advanced manufacturing and venture investing. Centrepolis’ ManuTech Summit spotlighted innovations in industrial automation, materials, and sustainability, while Renaissance Venture Capital’s “Undemo Day” drew investors and founders from across the Midwest to catalyze new capital flows into scaling companies.

Below, we round up the week’s most notable developments across the Industrial Vanguard themes from rare-earth geopolitics to battery-storage futures, AI-driven manufacturing, freight logistics, and venture capital moves shaping the industrial landscape.

Materials

• Rare Earths CEO: China Will Remain Key Supplier.
  A leading magnet-industry CEO told Bloomberg that any resilient rare-earth supply chain will still include Chinese producers, despite Western decoupling efforts. Read more ›

Energy

• Battery-Storage Futures. Axios explores scenarios shaping long-duration storage economics and policy. Read more ›

• U.S. Energy Storage Monitor. Clean Power Alliance’s latest data dashboard tracks deployments, pricing, and regional growth. View report ›

• Moxion’s Founder Returns Post-Bankruptcy. After the high-profile collapse of Moxion’s mobile-battery business, its founder has re-emerged with plans to “finish what we started.” TechCrunch ›

• Coal’s U.S. Decline in One Chart. Axios visualizes the long-term erosion of coal-fired power as renewables rise. See chart ›

• Voltai Raises CAD $1.83 M Pre-Seed. Canadian storage start-up secures early funding for next-gen battery systems. Details ›

• SPACs Offer Nuclear-Investor Exit Routes. Axios highlights SPAC structures being used as liquidity plays for nuclear projects. Read ›

• PMC Secures Strategic Growth Capital. BDC Growth Equity backs PMC to expand its clean-energy component manufacturing. Release ›

Design & Development

• VCs & Data Centers: A Complicated Courtship. Investors are reassessing ROI and power-grid constraints for hyperscale build-outs. Axios ›

• Cerebras Hits $8.1 B Valuation. The Nvidia rival raises new capital as AI-accelerator demand surges. Axios Pro ›

• Rebellions AI Chip Startup Valued at $1.4 B. South-Korean challenger gains backing to expand beyond domestic HPC markets. Bloomberg ›

• Airlines + Safran Support Novel SAF Process. A collaborative effort to scale sustainable-aviation-fuel production. AIN Online ›

• $300 M Seed to Automate Science. Ex-OpenAI/DeepMind researchers raise one of the largest seed rounds ever to accelerate autonomous-science platforms. TechCrunch ›

• Kiutra Raises €13 M for Helium-3-Free Quantum Cooling. Aimed at securing quantum-hardware supply chains. Quantum Insider ›

Manufacturing

• Augmented Industries Raises €4.5 M Pre-Seed. Building AI-guided shop-floor workflows to boost industrial productivity. Tech.eu ›

• Phaidra Closes $50 M+ Series B. Collaborative Fund backs the vision of “AI Factories of the Future.” PR Newswire ›

Supply Chain & Logistics

• Bot Auto Completes Human-less Hub-to-Hub Run in Texas. A step forward for autonomous freight corridors. Forbes ›

• Alvys Raises $40 M Series B. Funds will enhance AI-driven freight-ops platforms for carriers and brokers. Business Wire ›

• RunBuggy Snags $37 M Series B. Focused on AI-powered automotive-logistics optimization. PR Newswire ›

Recycling

• No notable recycling headlines this week.

Venture Capital & Private Equity

• Cleantech VCs Weigh Trump 2.0 Policy Shifts. Axios dissects investor sentiment around anticipated regulatory changes. Axios ›

• Toyota Launches Woven Capital Fund II. Part of its strategy to accelerate the shift from OEM to integrated mobility company. Toyota Newsroom ›

• Adam Draper Raises $87 M+ Boost Fund. The Draper-family investor doubles down on crypto-adjacent and frontier-tech bets. Fortune ›

• Einride Raises $100 M. Funds will expand the self-driving-trucking network. TechCrunch ›

• Creator Fund Closes $41 M for 1st European Fund Backing Scientific Founders. VC Wire ›

• Recast Capital Announces 3rd Accelerate Cohort. Supporting emerging fund managers in venture ecosystems. VC Wire ›

Markets, Policy & News

• Wabtec Lands $4.2 B Locomotive Deal with Kazakhstan. Biggest overseas order yet for U.S.-built ES44ACI freight locomotives. Manufacturing Dive ›

• Trump Expands Tech-Trade Blacklist Targeting China. Escalating supply-chain and semiconductor tensions. WSJ ›

• Government Shutdown: Impact on Tech. Axios breaks down expected effects on grants, contracts, and federal-agency operations. Axios ›

• 55 North Holds First €134 M Close of Quantum-Tech Fund. Another sign of deep-tech capital mobilizing for hardware-heavy fields. VC Wire ›