From AI to EVs, demand for semiconductors is exploding, but silicon is hitting its limits. Making more efficient chips requires new materials, ones far less ubiquitous than sand, but the solution might be out there — literally.
Space Forge, a U.K. startup headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, recently raised a £22.6 million (approximately $30 million) Series A to make wafer materials in space, where unique conditions unlock new possibilities.
For instance, the Welsh startup earlier won funding for a project through which BT (formerly British Telecom) is hoping to test how integrating crystal materials grown in space could reduce the power consumption of its 5G towers. Because of weightlessness and other properties, crystals made in space have fewer defects, which can help devices use less energy.
Real-world use cases like this help Space Forge convey the message that critical systems could use its technology as an invisible backbone. The whole idea of making chips in orbit may sound like science fiction, but its feasibility has been known since the 1970s, CEO Joshua Western told TechCrunch.
“We’re stood on the shoulders of about 50 years of research when it comes to not only knowing that this is possible, but also knowing that there is a profound improvement in doing so,” Western said.
The improvement in question is obtaining crystals and advanced semiconductor materials with fewer defects and enhanced performance, making them appealing for use in applications such as quantum computing and defense systems.
This dual-use potential explains why NATO Innovation Fund led Space Forge’s Series A, and why major U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman is one of its partners.
Partners will be key to Space Forge’s trajectory: The company won’t build rockets and is instead relying on existing space providers for the launch part — a “solved problem,” in Western’s words.
It’s not just the rockets; from chip manufacturing to space return, Space Forge is tying together technologies that may be described as solved problems, at least on paper. But if you ask Western about its moat, he has a quick retort: “How bloody hard is it to do?!”
That’s the price to pay to take advantage of space’s unique environment: It requires adapting to harsh conditions such as extreme temperatures and microgravity, Western said. “Physics has the answers, and engineering is how you actually get there.”
Engineering is also needed to bridge the gap between innovation and commercially viable technology. Rather than capsules like Apollo’s, Space Forge returns its materials to Earth as “Mary Poppins from space.” Western explained the nickname: “We deploy something that looks very much like an umbrella, [but] that’s space grade, and that allows us to float back from space down to the ground.”
Developing new return technology is a key focus of Space Forge. Besides its heat shield, Pridwen, a nod to the legend of King Arthur, the startup also developed Fielder, a floating net to catch returning satellites and ensure a soft landing on water. These efforts were supported by the U.K. Space Agency and European Space Agency, of which the U.K. is still a member despite Brexit.
Establishing a return infrastructure across Europe is one of Space Forge’s ambitions — and it is underway. This week, the company opened an office in Portugal on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, a well-suited location for satellite return in mainland Europe and an important step to convince European partners that this approach can reach industrial scale.
The increasing commoditization of both return and launch technologies is what made the rise of in-space manufacturing startups possible in the first place, with applications also including drug discovery and telecom hardware. But their viability is still very dependent on costs coming down, or in finding clients willing to pay that premium.
Shifting geopolitics could help Space Forge secure more of these clients. Western and his co-founder and CTO Andrew Bacon previously worked at Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and its Italian peer Leonardo. But the trend is broader than just defense, as concerns mount across Europe over reliance on semiconductors from Taiwan.
“We urgently need a resilient, homegrown supply of the next-gen supermaterials required for the future of compute. We also need this homegrown chip supply to be produced sustainably,” World Fund general partner Daria Saharova wrote in a statement.
The climate tech VC firm, which co-led Space Forge’s seed round and participated in its Series A, is buying into Space Forge’s positioning as a “carbon negative technology” that could fight climate change. However, the emissions savings have yet to be proven at scale and rely on commercial adoption to truly offset each mission.
Space Forge, though, still has to complete its first mission. Its first attempt ended after a grand total of six and a half minutes when Virgin Orbit’s rocket suffered an anomaly in its launch of Cornwall in 2023, losing its entire payload, including Space Forge’s ForgeStar-0 satellite.
With its new funding, the company is now accelerating the development of its latest spacecraft and readying for the launch of its ForgeStar-1 demonstrator later this year, together with Pridwen. And in a nod to the galaxy far, far away, Space Forge announced the mission’s official name — “The Forge Awakens” — on May 4.
Anna Heim met and interviewed Joshua Western and Daria Saharova at a World Fund event that the VC firm covered her travel costs to attend; this article was written independently.
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Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.
This week brought more than just Nvidia’s earnings reports; startups and VCs also had some news — quieter perhaps, but still worth paying attention to, especially where AI is involved.
AI once again drove a large share of overall startup activity, including one acquisition, but this week also brought us a reminder that full M&A execution takes time — and that VC funding is not the only route.
Good optics: AMD acquired Enosemi, a startup designing custom materials to support silicon photonics product development, under undisclosed terms. The goal of the acquisition is to “accelerate [AMD’s] co-packaged optics innovation for AI systems.”
Onboarded: AI startup Anthropic added Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to its board of directors. Hastings was appointed by Anthropic’s independent Long-Term Benefit Trust and already has experience sitting on the boards of Netflix, Bloomberg, Meta, and Microsoft.
It takes time: Family safety app Life360 finally incorporates the AirTag-like lost item tracking functionalities of Tile, three and a half years after Life360 acquired Tile for $205 million.
One month and 25 days: High-profile entrepreneur and angel investor Sahil Lavingia revealed details of his stint on Elon Musk’s DOGE workforce, saying he was booted after only 55 days. But it’s not just him: Musk’s stint is also coming to an end.
Bootstrapped: Ten-year-old cybersecurity company Thinkst Canary reached $20 million in annual recurring revenue without VC investment — an interesting story that seemed worth mentioning before diving into funding news.
Funding news this week comes from a mix of announcements and rumors — unconfirmed but well-sourced. Let’s start with these before moving on to the more concrete updates.
Musk again: Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup, reportedly raised $600 million at a $9 billion pre-money valuation.
Long arm: Samsung is said to be looking to invest in a $100 million round for medical device startup Exo through its venture investment arm.
New horizon: Filings revealed that cybersecurity startup Horizon3.ai is seeking to raise $100 million, out of which it has already secured at least $73 million.
New bricks: Buildots, a Chicago-based startup leveraging AI and computer vision to improve construction progress tracking, raised a $45 million Series D, bringing its total raised to $166 million.
Adding up: Rillet, a startup using machine learning and generative AI to automate accounting reports, raised a $25 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital, only 10 months after a $13.5 million seed and pre-seed round.
Convenience: Snabbit, a 15-month-old Indian startup operating in the increasingly hot home services space, secured $19 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed at a post-money valuation of $80 million.
World models: SpAItial, the new company of Synthesia co-founder Matthias Niessner, raised a $13 million seed round led by Earlybird to develop a foundation model capable of generating interactive 3D online environments. It would share similarities with the AI model released by competitor Odyssey this week.
Advanced grid: Gridcare, an AI-powered energy optimization startup, emerged out of stealth with an oversubscribed $13.5 million seed round and said it’s ready to play matchmaker between data centers and utilities.
Diversifying: State-owned Saudi AI company Humain is making progress to launch Humain Ventures, a $10 billion venture fund that will invest in startups in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Kiwi startups: Auckland-based venture firm and incubator Outset Ventures closed a second fund of approximately $25 million to invest in deep tech startups emerging out of New Zealand.
Nuclear fusion startups have been attracting investors, but their endeavors are still experimental. Fission, on the other hand, already has the potential to power data centers, which explains why Big Tech companies have been investing in nuclear fission startups.
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We’re thrilled by the overwhelming response to our call for speakers at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco.
After a careful selection process, we’ve narrowed it down to 20 impressive finalists—10 breakout sessions and 10 roundtables.
Now it’s your turn to help shape the agenda. Audience Choice voting is open until 11:59 p.m. PT tonight. This is your final opportunity to weigh in—vote for your favorite sessions and help decide which will take the stage. You can vote for as many sessions as you’d like—just one vote per session.
The top 5 in each category will join the official Disrupt 2025 lineup.
Breakout Sessions
How to Get Acquired in Tech (Without Selling Out): M&A Tips for Founders and Builders
Aklil Ibssa, Head of Corporate Development and M&A, Coinbase
Agentic AI for Startups: Automate, Adapt, and Accelerate Growth
Anmol Rastogi, Head of Product, Amazon Business – AI & ML, Amazon
Automation with Agents: From Work Enablement to Work Completion
Chet Kapoor, Chairman and CEO, DataStax
AI at the Brink: Strategic Playbook for National Security
Dan Hendrycks, Executive and Research Director, Center for AI Safety (CAIS)
Leading a Series A Round in 2025 and Sustaining Momentum
Gabriel Kra, Managing Director, Prelude Ventures
The Agentic Apocalypse: Securing the Enterprise in the Age of 1 Billion AI Agents
Jack Hidary, CEO, SandboxAQ
Jim Breyer, Founder and CEO, Breyer Capital
Embracing AI for a Better Digital Future
Matt Madrigal, Chief Technology Officer, Pinterest
Mining for Millions with GenAI’s 4 Ds: Striking Trust, Delight, and Dividends
Michael Stewart, Managing Partner, M12
From Data to Agents: Building the AI-Native Enterprise
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Chief Executive Officer, Snowflake
From Vibes to Velocity: How AI Tools Can Help You Achieve Your Development Goals
Tim Rogers, Staff Product Manager, GitHub Copilot, GitHub
Roundtable Sessions
Future of Space Economy in the Low Earth Orbit
Abhijeet Kumar, Invited Lecturer – New Space Economy, UC Berkeley | Tech and Strategy Lead, Archer
From Startup to Scale-Up: A GTM Blueprint
Anjai Lal, Head of Strategy and Enablement, Google Cloud
From Code to Capital: How VCs Spot the Next AI Powerhouses
Avi Bharadwaj, Investment Director, Intel Capital
The Winning Formula: Turning Your Business Into a Trusted, Scalable Community To Drive Growth
Justine Palefsky and Tasneem Amina, Co-founders, Kindred
Vlad Loktev, Partner, Index Ventures
How to Train Your Model: Taming AI Agents Without Breaking Them
Kyla Guru, Head of Model Cyber Policy, Anthropic
Alex Moix, Investigations Lead, Safeguards, Anthropic
Going a Layer Deeper: Why the future of AI investments lies with infrastructure and applications
Paul Drews, Managing Partner, Salesforce Ventures
Scaling Search and AI for Millions: Lessons from Reddit Search
Rachel Miller, Product Manager, Reddit
AI Evaluation 101: Addressing Challenges to Real-World AI Applications
Rohit Patel, Director, Generative AI, Meta
From Workarounds to Breakthroughs: How UpLink Lets Users Connect Any App—No Integration Needed
Scott Weinert, CTO and Co-founder, Atomic
Whose Company Is It, Anyway?: What You Lose When You Accept Outside Capital
Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist, Zoho
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June 5 is almost here — bringing real, unfiltered AI conversations… and higher ticket prices. Lock in your savings now.
Register now to save $300 on your TechCrunch Sessions: AI pass — and get 50% off for your +1. Don’t wait for rates to spike when event doors open.
Join us at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall — the one-day epicenter for next-gen AI insights, big questions, and actionable ideas from the builders, thinkers, and investors shaping the future.
Explore the full agenda here.
Main stage and breakout sessions are packed with tactical insight and bold vision from leaders like:
Whether you’re pitching your AI startup, swapping ideas with fellow builders, or just getting started, networking at TC Sessions: AI is smarter — thanks to the Braindate app. Use the app to match on topics, meet face-to-face, and make meaningful connections with people who care about what you care about.
And when the event’s a wrap? The conversations keep flowing at Side Events all week long in Berkeley.
This isn’t another hype-filled AI event. It’s where the noise drops out — and the real conversations begin.
Only 6 days left to lock in your low ticket rate for TechCrunch Sessions: AI. Don’t sit this one out — save $300 on your pass, and get 50% off for your +1.
Register now before prices jump at the door, and be part of the conversations actually shaping the future of AI.
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