Orbit Is the New Silicon Valley

WHAT’S INSIDE

👇️ Todays’ Feature: Space Data Centers, Memory Chips, & Golden Dome Gold Rush

• Tech News: AI Chips, DC Crime, Research Grants, IRS, Fed Hires, Epstein, EVs

• Company Watch: Pure Cipher, Periodic, Bullish, StubHub, Micron, Paramount

• Buzzy Tools: Latest Buzzy tech, AI and financial tools

• Deep Tech: The latest in deep tech, biotech, futurism and more

• Space Tech: Latest news in the space race and aerospace tech

• Crypto: Blockchain and crypto policy and startups or protocols to watch

TECH IN THE NEWS

Markets on Edge — U.S. and global markets brace for key events: inflation report, China trade deadline, and a U.S.-Russia summit. Nvidia and AMD share sales revenue with the government, while Bitcoin surges on regulatory changes.

AI Chip Trade-Off — Nvidia and AMD will pay the U.S. government 15% of revenue from high-end AI chip sales to China for sales licenses in return for rare-earth trade deal. Chinese media points out security concerns of backdoor access.

DC Crackdown — President Trump calls for action against crime and homelessness in Washington DC, despite data showing reduced crime rates. Mayor Bowser counters his claims, highlighting ongoing efforts.

Research Grants Takeover — Trump signs an executive order centralizing control of research grants, allowing political appointees to oversee funding.

Hiring Shuffle — Trump has dismissed Billy Long as IRS commissioner. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will serve as acting commissioner until a permanent replacement is appointed. Also he expands the Fed chair search to include James Bullard and economic adviser Marc Sumerlin.

Epstein Secrets Sealed — A federal judge denied requests to unseal grand jury transcripts concerning Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, citing the need for secrecy despite public and governmental interest.

EV Fund Thaw — The Trump administration has lifted a freeze on $5 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure after a court ruling. New DoT guidance simplifies state reviews, removing some consumer and environmental requirements.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PACASO

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Orbit Is the New Silicon Valley

How Off-Planet Data Centers and AI Memory Chips and the Golden Dome Are Creating a $39B Space Tech Gold Rush

The space-based data center market is on track to grow from $1.77Billion in 2029 to $39.09B by 2035 — a compound annual growth rate of 67.4%. This is not a distant-future moonshot. It’s already underway, fueled by the convergence of orbital infrastructure, AI model training in space, sovereign cloud requirements for allied governments, and a new generation of radiation-hardened chips designed for space.

Private equity has noticed. In 2024, $108B in private capital poured into data centers, including orbital concepts, tripling the previous year’s total. Blackstone, DigitalBridge, and Vantage Data Centers are leading the push into hyperscale and modular infrastructure that can operate at the edge. And here, “edge” means low-Earth orbit.

Why the Acceleration Is Happening Now

A decade ago, the biggest barrier to off-planet computing was hardware resilience. Without chips and memory able to survive radiation, temperature swings, and mechanical shock, space-based compute was limited to highly specialized government payloads.

That bottleneck is breaking. Micron’s August 2025 debut of the world’s highest-density 256Gb radiation-hardened SLC NAND flash marks a leap in memory for aerospace and AI edge computing. Qualified to NASA and U.S. military standards, the device endured 590 hours of burn-in and defect screening. This is the kind of component that allows real-time analytics and autonomous decision-making in orbit, reducing latency by moving processing closer to the sensor.

At the same time, the AI memory chip market is scaling fast — from $110 billion in 2024 to an expected $1.25 trillion by 2034 at 27.5% CAGR, with 42% of demand coming from data centers. The space-qualified segment is a fraction of that today, but it’s the fastest-growing category as demand for radiation-tolerant DRAM, NAND, NOR, and high-bandwidth memory spikes for AI workloads in extreme conditions.

Golden Dome as a Force Multiplier

The Pentagon’s $175B Golden Dome program is a major driver. Designed to provide a missile defense “shield” with full operational status by 2028, it will depend on hundreds of satellites equipped with AI-driven data fusion and edge computing.

L3Harris leads integration, with partners like Palantir and Shield AI building collaborative networks for autonomous threat detection. Axiom Space is launching Orbital Data Center (ODC) nodes tailored for its secure cloud and analytics needs, while SpaceX, Anduril, and others are delivering the constellation backbones.

The hardware layer is crucial. Golden Dome’s instant threat response depends on processing sensor data in orbit, without relying on Earth-bound links. That means AI memory chips like Micron’s, coupled with radiation-hardened compute from Nvidia, AMD, and SK Hynix, will be embedded directly in these orbital platforms.

Private Sector Tailwinds

While defense contracts are the initial anchor, commercial opportunities are expanding quickly. Orbital data centers can serve earth observation, financial market latency reduction, global broadband, and AI training for sovereign governments that want their data stored outside terrestrial jurisdictions.

Startups like Lonestar are targeting lunar deployments, betting that the moon will host data redundancy for both defense and private clients. With modular, prefab orbital servers, capacity can scale as new payloads are launched, turning orbital compute into a flexible, rentable service — just as AWS transformed terrestrial infrastructure.

The China Factor

This week's US–China AI chip agreement adds another layer. Under the deal, Nvidia and AMD can sell inference-class AI chips to China in exchange for paying 15% of China-derived revenue to the U.S. government. These are not the companies’ top-tier models, but they still provide significant AI processing capability — enough to accelerate China’s own space computing ambitions.

Security analysts are split. Supporters argue the deal prevents Huawei and other domestic Chinese players from monopolizing their home market, keeping U.S. firms commercially competitive. Critics warn that even inference-grade chips could feed Chinese space-based AI programs, eroding the U.S. lead in orbital infrastructure over time.

For now, U.S. defense-aligned programs like Golden Dome will have access to the highest-end chips, while China gets restricted designs. But in a market growing as fast as space-based AI compute, even second-tier hardware can be a strong foundation.

Who Stands to Gain

Hardware vendors — Micron, Nvidia, AMD, SK Hynix, Samsung — are at the core, with high-margin opportunities in the space-qualified segment.
Space infrastructure firms — Axiom Space, L3Harris, Palantir, Anduril, SpaceX — will own key pieces of orbital compute and networking.
Defense contractors — Boeing, Epirus, Ursa Major, Armada — will build specialized payloads.
Investors — PE funds and VCs backing space infrastructure and AI edge computing are poised for strong returns as orbital computing goes revenue +.

The Broader Space Economy

All of this is part of a larger trend toward a $1 trillion space economy by 2032. As AI workloads move off-planet, the early winners will be those who control the compute, the memory, and the secure data flows between Earth and orbit.

With Golden Dome as a high-budget proving ground, Micron’s NAND setting a new standard for space memory, and private equity rapidly building infrastructure, the business case for space-based data centers is no longer theoretical.

In a decade, “cloud” may be a literal term — and the world’s most valuable data could be stored, processed, and secured hundreds of miles above the planet.

COMPANIES TO WATCH

[Open Deal] Pure Cipher — a deep-tech company developing tech to prevent AI data poisoning and compromise, targeting a $1.6T market of Enterprise and already secured DoD clients. Founded by AI and cybersecurity experts.

[Open Deal] Periodic Labs — Andreessen Horowitz leads a $200M investment in this AI-driven material science startup, boosting its valuation to $1B. OpenAI is also expected to join this funding round, indicating significant growth potential.

[Open Deal] Bullish — The crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel is targeting a valuation of up to $4.82B in its upsized IPO. Bullish plans to raise up to $990M , converting part of the proceeds into stablecoins to enhance its infrastructure.

StubHub — The ticket resale platform plans to go public in September after an April delay. It reported 10% revenue growth in Q1 with $2.08B gross merchandise sales. Previously, StubHub sought a $16.5B valuation amid strong competition from Ticketmaster.

Meta Platforms Inc. — Selected Pimco and Blue Owl Capital for a $29B financing to expand a data center in Louisiana. With $26B in debt from Pimco and $3B equity from Blue Owl, this supports Meta's AI growth in the competitive private credit market.

SoftBank — Acquired Foxconn's Ohio EV plant to boost its $500B Stargate AI data center project with OpenAI and Oracle. The plant will manufacture AI servers, enhancing SoftBank's AI hardware capabilities. Investor interest remains strong.

Micron Technology — The memory chip company raised Q4 revenue forecast to $11.2B due to surging AI infrastructure demand, pushing shares up 3%. It plans to invest $30B in a US expansion.

Paramount — David Ellison, Paramount's new CEO, secured a $7.7B, seven-year deal with TKO Group Holdings for UFC broadcasting right, enhancing its streaming platform and CBS offerings, marking a shift from Disney’s pay-per-view model.

Rumble — Plans to acquire Northern Data in a $1.17B all-stock deal, excluding its bitcoin mining division. This acquisition, backed by major shareholder Tether, aims to boost Rumble's position in AI cloud services. Rumble's stock surged over 20%.

 SignalPulse — Read the Top signals, Startups + Deals From Last Week

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BUZZY TOOLS

Buzzy Tech Tools To Watch & Use

Apple — iPhone 17 lineup teased, Testing Siri for app control via voice eta spring 2026 + iOS 26 beta.

Google Finance — AI updates for financial insights, advanced charting in U.S.

Gemini Live — Real-time interaction with Google apps on Android and iOS.

xAI — Testing Grok 4.20, to rival GPT-5. Musk hints at late August launch.

Ocean — Productivity app for Gmail tasks with AI summarization, triage, scheduling.

Zhipu — GLM-4.5V o-s model enhances visual reasoning, community collabs.

Alibaba Qwen3 AI — Ultra-long context 1M tokens, for speed, competitive edge.

BUZZY TECH

The Latest Deep Technology & Trends To Watch

OpenAI o3 Model — Wins AI chess tournament, outperforming Grok on Kaggle.

Smart Dust — Tiny wireless sensors transform environmental data collection.

AI Medical Assistant — NASA and Google's CMO-DA enhances space health care.

Tesla AI6 Chip — AI6 chip by Tesla, Samsung self-driving tech succeeds Dojo.

Programmable DNA — Chinese “PCE” tool advances precise DNA editing.

GRETA Nuclear Detector — 30 germanium modules enhance nuclear structure.

CRYPTO WATCH

Crypto Market Surge — Ethereum led a weekend rally, surpassing $4,200, with Bitcoin trading near $120,500. Total market cap hit record $4T, boosted by altcoin activity and Ethereum ETF investments. The 401(k) crypto order fueled sentiment.

White House Crypto Council — Bo Hines steps down as Executive Director, returning to the private sector. Patrick Witt, Deputy Executive Director, is expected to succeed him. Hines’ tenure saw the release of a comprehensive crypto policy report.

BitMine's Ethereum Bet — BitMine Immersion Technologies has acquired an additional 317,000 ETH, raising its total to 1.15 million ETH worth $4.9 billion. Chairman Tom Lee plans to stake up to 5% of Ethereum's supply.

Strategy — Michael Saylor’s company is nearing 3% ownership of Bitcoin through recent acquisitions. Strategy acquired 155 BTC for ~$18M, increasing total holdings to nearly 629,000 BTC valued over $75 billion.

Paxos Charter Pursuit — Paxos, issuer of PayPal's PYUSD, is applying for a national trust bank charter, aiming to manage assets and settle payments efficiently. This follows a stalled 2020 attempt and resolved compliance issues with Binance.

SPACE_RACE

Perseid Meteor Shower 2025 — Up to 100 meteors/hour visible, best predawn.

Firefly IPO_Raised $868.3M at $6.32B - strong demand post-lunar mission.

SpaceX_Falcon 9 deploys 24 Amazon Kuiper satellites, 100th launch for year.

Amazon Kuiper_24 satellites to compete with Starlink in satellite internet.

Micron_Radiation-tolerant memory supports space AI data processing.

Vulcan_Debut national security mission for U.S. Space Force Nav-Satellite-3.

Space Economy_Emerging investment opportunities beyond rockets, satellites.

Edgx Sterna _AI computer boosts satellite decision-making, bandwidth.

3D-Printed Titanium Rocket Tank_First 3D-printed parts tested for aerospace use

FOR INVESTORS
Open Deals
Investors– request an intro to startups - [email protected].

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For detailed pitch materials, please email [email protected] with your deck.
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FOR EMPLOYERS
Job Candidates

Employers– request an intro to candidates - jobs@techbuzz.ai