Issue #19August 28, 20265 links

Gatik raises $200.0M Series D for driverless trucking

Gatik raised a $200.0M Series D for its autonomous middle-mile trucking fleet, which runs short-haul B2B deliveries for customers including Kroger, Walmart, Loblaw and Tyson Foods. Bengaluru-based Airbound raised a $37.0M Series A for its vertical-takeoff cargo aircraft, funding a three-city drone delivery network in Andhra Pradesh after more than 13,000 autonomous flights.

Interesting

spacex.com

SpaceX Starbase LA

A spaceport on the Louisiana Gulf Coast enabling a multiplanetary future

Star Port Starbase Spacex

arxiv.org

Black hole singularity is a surface not a point

It is widely repeated in the popular literature and elsewhere that the singularity at the center of a black hole is a point. It is not true. Two observers who free-fall into a spherical black hole along two different angular trajectories at the same time $t$ do not encounter each other at the central singularity; rather, they lose causal contact with each other already well away from the singularity. Counterintuitively, in general relativity two points can be spatially close yet causally distant. The singularity is a surface, not a point. The story for rotating black holes is more complicated, but the same conclusion holds. For a rotating black hole, the singular surface almost certainly resides at its inner horizon, where even the tiniest classical or quantum perturbations ignite the exponential mass inflation instability, precipitating collapse to a spacelike singular surface. There are implications for quantum gravity. We argue that, whatever the ultimate theory of quantum gravity may be, the quantum states of a black hole probably reside at its effectively 2-dimensional singular surface, which coevolves unitarily with, and in thermodynamic equilibrium with, the hot atmosphere of trapped Hawking radiation that the black hole generates within its event horizon.

Astrophysics

Cool Company Raises

$12.5M

TerraBlaster raises a $12.5M Seed round

TerraBlaster builds laser-based soil sensors that read nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and pH in real time as a tractor or ATV drives the field, at resolutions down to 0.15 acres. Using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, it feeds nutrient maps straight into the variable-rate fertiliser workflows growers already run. The California company was founded by Jorge Heraud, former John Deere executive and Blue River Technology co-founder, and plans commercial launch in spring 2027.

Manufacturing Farming Hort Innovation Venture Fund Grain Innovate Plug And Play Sunna+8 more

$200.0M

Gatik raises a $200.0M Series D round

Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle mile logistics, delivers goods safely and efficiently using its fleet of light and medium duty trucks. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 customers including Kroger, Walmart, Loblaw, Tyson Foods, and Pitney Bowes, and in 2021 became the first company worldwide to operate fully driverless commercial deliveries on the middle mile.

Transportation Intact Private Capital Ark Invest Millennium Management Koch Disruptive Technologies Qatar Investment Authority+1 more

$37.0M

Airbound raises a $37.0M Series A round

Airbound builds autonomous, zero-infrastructure delivery aircraft — engineered, manufactured, and flown in India. Its TRT blended-wing-body tailsitter takes off vertically without a runway and flies cargo to places roads serve badly, with an ultra-lightweight airframe that weighs less than the payload it carries. The Bengaluru company has logged over 13,000 autonomous flights, moves diagnostic samples for hospital networks today, and is targeting per-delivery costs low enough to compete with trucking. The Series A funds a three-city drone delivery network in Andhra Pradesh and a larger next-generation craft.

Transportation Logistics Manufacturing Greenoaks DoorDash Labs Lachy Groom+4 more

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