Daily Hard Tech Headlines:
- @LongshotSpace has secured $20 million in total funding, including a new $5 million investment from South Park Commons. The Bay Area startup is developing a ground-based kinetic launcher for hypersonic payload delivery and future space access.
- Sophia Space has secured $22 million in total funding to advance orbital computing and space-based data centers. The startup is partnering with Apex for an in-orbit demonstration.
- @skyways and ANA Holdings have successfully trialed long-range cargo drones in Okinawa for medical-supply deliveries to remote communities, including Kumejima.
- @Tesco, the United Kingdom’s largest grocery retailer, is deploying 600 autonomous cleaning robots across its Express stores, marking one of the country’s largest retail robotics deployments.
- @blackstone plans to deploy $30 billion across Japan to scale up data center development
- Hyundai Engineering and Korea’s KIND have agreed to support the development and potential financing of Rhyolite Ridge, a major lithium-boron project in Nevada.
- Amazon Prime Air has launched beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone deliveries in Darlington, United Kingdom.
- @getvictusai, the contested autonomy startup, has secured a partnership with Composite Energy Technologies focused on unmanned subsea technology.
- The U.S. Army deployed @HavocAi_USV autonomous unmanned surface vessels during Exercise Salaknib 2026 in the Philippines (pictured below), using them for maritime security.
