Search results for: “autonomous”

March 6, 2025

Drone deployment: vertical take-off?

Drones cost just $1k-100k each. They may use 95-99% less energy than traditional vehicles. Their ascent is being helped by battery technology and AI. Hence this 14-page report reviews recent progress from 40 leading drone companies. What stood out most was a re-shaping of the defense industry, plus helpful deflation across power grids, renewables, agriculture,…
Read more
Wildfire suppression companies?

1-2bn acres of land burns globally each year, which could increase by over 35% due to climate change. Hence this data-file screens emerging companies in wildfire suppression, which are focused on preventing, detecting and containing wildfires. The most commonly used methods are drones and AI. Thus adapting to climate change requires more energy not less?
Read more
May 8, 2025

Yttria-stabilized zirconia: sticker shock?

Global yttrium output is just 10-15kTpa, worth $100M pa, of which c90% is controlled by China. Yet a supply disruption for this critical metal could have ripple effects comparable to an oil shock: de-railing developed world load growth, aircraft manufacturing and the rise of AI? This 15-page report tells the story of yttria-stabilized zirconia, explores…
Read more
June 12, 2025

Energy transition: a new era? (driven by AI)

Energy transition remains among the most important and exciting topics in the world. But it is now less driven by Net Zero ambitions, and more so by digital and AI technologies. These offer world-changing possibilities; re-accelerating GDP, returns on capital, and commodities. This 13-page report captures our latest outlook on energy transition, and the opportunities…
Read more
Solar+AI: bootstrapping a sci-fi scenario?

What if a data center was powered entirely by solar, and then the profits and spare computation resources from the data-center were fully reinvested in building more solar and building more racks? Could you end up with 100TW-scale data-centers?! Would this scenario fail to materialize because we would run out of things to compute? Or…
Read more
June 24, 2025

Gecko Robotics: AI Asset Inspection?

Gecko Robotics is a leader in AI+Robotics (AIR), which can save tens of millions of dollars per year, when autonomous asset inspections are used to eliminate down-time and optimize maintenance operations. The company has already reached $1.25bn of valuation. The value hinges on the marriage of specialized hardware with an AI platform. This holds lessons…
Read more