May's Space Dirt 🚀 (month-end)

It’s been fun meeting and reconnecting with Space Dirt readers across a bunch of events I either hosted or attended in May. If you’re from out of town, feel free to reach out next time you’re in Gundo - even if it’s for a lunch rec!

As for this Space Dirt, the funding numbers continue to grow, SendCutSend finally takes on outside money, and a couple of hard tech companies go public (didn’t see much of that when I first started Space Dirt 3 years ago).

Enjoy!

Table of Contents

• REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

• STEALTH NO MORE

• REAL ESTATE CORNER

• NOTABLE FUNDINGS

• AGREEMENTS, PARTNERSHIPS, & CONTRACTS

• WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!) 

• HOW I CAN HELP YOU

REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

Lazarus Energy leased 8,000 SF at 3429 W El Segundo Blvd, Hawthorne, CA (AndrenaM's former space). (source: Me!) 

FluidLogic leased 12,890 SF at 1320-1330 E Franklin Ave, El Segundo, CA. (source: Me!)

Furientis leased 15,100 SF at 12509-12511 Beatrice Street, Los Angeles, CA. (source: Me!)

Armada announced an agreement with Johnson Controls for Galleon Forge One, a modular data center production at a dedicated factory in Arizona. Galleon Forge One will span up to 400,000 SF, and is expected to create 500 jobs, with additional roles in the domestic supply chain. Continuous production is planned to begin in the summer and will start with Leviathan, Armada's megawatt-scale modular data centers built for high-density AI training and inference workloads, sovereign neo-cloud, and multi-tenant compute environments. (source: X)

Aeon Industrial plans to move into a 48,000 SF headquarters and manufacturing facility at 2305 Scottsdale Drive, Cedar Park, TX, leaving Austin. The move comes as Cedar Park, which is 20 miles northwest of Austin, aims to market itself as an aerospace and defense hub. (source: Austin Business Journal)

Valinor announced the opening of Dispatch's manufacturing and R&D facility in Cookeville, TN. (source: X)

STEALTH NO MORE

General Astronautics closed an oversubscribed seed round — no figure disclosed publicly — to build autonomous robotic systems for research and manufacturing in space. The company is backed by Y Combinator (W26) and NVIDIA's Inception Program. Cofounders Bram Schork (Caltech MechE, SpaceX Starlink Lasers) and Shibo Zhou (CMU CS/Robotics, USACO Finalist) started the company in 2025. The core product is a robotic system designed to handle laboratory work in microgravity: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing — with the precision and autonomy to operate without crew oversight. The thesis is simple and well-supported: astronaut time costs $130,000 per hour on the ISS and over three times that on commercial stations. Crews sleep, rotate home, and have to choose which experiments actually run. Most of the science that could happen in space doesn't. General Astronautics is building the robotic workforce that runs the lab while the crew sleeps. Bram Schork is the Founder. (source: X)

Furientis emerged from stealth with $5M in pre-seed funding to build cost-effective, mass-producible missile interceptors for ship-based defense. The round was led by Silent Ventures, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, SV Angel, Vanderbilt University, Channel 39 Ventures, and angel founders from Anduril, Erebor, and Armada. The numbers behind the company's founding thesis are stark: during the 2024 Red Sea crisis, the U.S. Navy fired more than 200 interceptor missiles to defend ships against Iranian-backed drone and missile attacks. Each interceptor costs roughly $4 million. The threats it was destroying cost around $40,000. And the Navy only receives approximately 200 of those interceptors per year. Cofounders Brody Franzen (formerly Deputy Chief Engineer at Virgin Galactic, Senior Engineer at Castelion) and Aris Simsarian (formerly Propulsion Engineer and Rocket Engine Test Manager at Virgin Orbit) each bring a decade of rocket design and testing experience. In six months, the team has conducted six flight tests and ten static-fire tests of its demonstrator missile. The development model is rapid and end-user-driven. (source: GlobeNewswire)

Apollo Atomics (YC Spring 2026) is building compact pressurized water reactors for customers who can't wait for the grid. Cofounders Assil Halimi and Drew Walker made a single design change to an otherwise proven nuclear architecture: they replaced the massive, hand-built steam generator at the heart of a conventional PWR with a Compact Steam Generator (CSG) that is 20 times smaller and delivers the same thermal power. That one change takes a reactor from a decade-long construction project to a factory-built machine deployable in under 24 months. The product roadmap is three reactors on a truck: the A-10 at 10 MWe, the A-50 at 50 MWe, and the A-300 at 300 MWe. The company has a working demonstrator already tested, and fuel reaching criticality before July 4th. No external funding disclosed beyond YC. (source: YCombinator)

Lazarus Energy is coming out of stealth to build modular supercritical CO₂ turbines from first principles. Cofounders Luke Malcolm and George Kitromelides are months in with hardware already designed, parts on order, and a prototype under assembly. No funding has been disclosed publicly. The technology: supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) as a working fluid collapses turbomachinery size by an order of magnitude compared to conventional steam turbines. Megawatts of generation capacity fit on factory-built skids. The physics have been understood since the 1960s, and labs have run full cycles as recently as last year. What's changed is that materials science, manufacturing processes, and compact heat exchangers have finally matured enough to make commercial deployment viable. Lazarus is heat-source agnostic — natural gas today, nuclear tomorrow. The design avoids the bespoke manufacturing processes that bottleneck large-frame OEM turbines, which means faster production and supply chains that can actually scale. (source: LinkedIn)

InLoop Robotics (YC P26) is deploying robotic arms in warehouses on a monthly subscription model: no upfront capital, no integrators, no six-month proof of concept. The pitch: warehouses replace half their workforce every year, traditional automation costs seven figures and locks customers to a single SKU, and every peak season forces an impossible tradeoff between overstaffing and losing customers. InLoop deploys in two weeks, starts packing top SKUs within days, and bills monthly. Paid pilots are live today at 300-plus picks per hour, generalizing across hundreds of SKUs. No disclosed funding beyond YC. The Cofounders are Zakariea Sharfeddine, Stepan Feduniak, and Pasha Rizali. (sources: LinkedIn and YCombinator)

Aveva Robotics (YC P26) is building Sentinel, which it calls the fastest VR teleoperation software on the market. The problem it's solving: when autonomous robots get stuck in the field, the fastest recovery path is human teleoperation. But today, that means keeping on-site staff on standby — an expensive constraint that limits how broadly and quickly robotics companies can deploy. Sentinel lets operators recover robots from anywhere in the world, capture the edge cases that matter for training, and collect the failure data that improves the underlying Physical AI models. No disclosed funding figure beyond YC backing. Ary Indarapu and Vikram Vadrevu are the Cofounders. (sources: LinkedIn and YCombinator)

REAL ESTATE CORNER

In the last two Space Dirts, a company and a mayor got upset because I announced a move before they did. A little further back, a CEO commented on one of my posts, saying I broke his own moving news.

In every one of these cases, I'd shared publicly available information. Sometimes you just have to know where to look.

So if you've ever wondered how I stay ahead of South Bay real estate moves (or why other CRE brokers subscribe to Space Dirt), here's how I do it:

1. I talk to a lot of people. Landlords, brokers, tenants, clients, and a couple of other reliable sources. This intel stays private to help my clients, but when it's public, I share it.

2. I walk buildings. Old school, but it works. You'd be amazed at what you discover by getting off the computer and walking through South Bay neighborhoods.

3. I track subleases. When a hard tech company puts its space on the sublease market, they've usually already found a bigger spot. I connect the dots with what's recently leased or taken off market, then confirm on...

4. Costar. Costar owns LoopNet, but has more in-depth market coverage. Note - and this is important - the only way a company's move ends up on Costar is if the Landlord or the Tenant Broker provides Costar with that info. So when people get upset that I "leaked" their move, chances are it was already reported by someone on their side. (There's irony in there somewhere.)

5. A few other ways: Public records, building permits, business licenses, job postings with new addresses, and LinkedIn announcements. It all adds up.

There you have it. My secrets revealed.

Of course, while I share a lot of this market info in Space Dirt, I really do it for my clients. It's the little advantages that compound when looking for space in the tight South Bay CRE market.

- Erik

PARTNER WITH SPACE DIRT🚀

Get your product or service in front of a community of 3,300 hard tech executives, entrepreneurs, and investors.

If you’re interested in partnering with Space Dirt, email us here to see if we’re a good fit.

NOTABLE FUNDINGS

Fervo Energy began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker FRVO on May 13, 2026, after pricing its IPO at $27 per share. The deal raised $1.89B in gross proceeds from 70M shares, implying a fully diluted valuation of roughly $7.65B. Shares opened around $35, approximately 30% above the IPO price, implying an open-day market capitalization of near $10B. That represents roughly 3.5x the $2.86B post-money valuation set by the December 2025 Series E, in five months. (source: Cleantech Group)

Amca closed a $300M Series B at $1B+ valuation to strengthen America's critical component supply chain. Amca rapidly develops and manufactures critical aerospace and defense components by combining engineering, qualification testing, technical data development, and certified manufacturing capacity into a single integrated platform. The round was led by Amca's Series A lead, Caffeinated Capital, with major participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and continued support from existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, Construct Capital, and House Capital. With this financing, Amca is now valued at over $1B, eighteen months after its founding, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in aerospace and defense to reach this milestone. (source: Morningstar)

Armada’s $230M Series B was co-led by Overmatch, BlackRock, and 8090 Industries. It is the company’s largest round to date and heavily oversubscribed, bringing total funding to nearly half a billion dollars. New strategic investors BlackRock, Johnson Controls, NightDragon, Mitsui, and Singtel Innov8 participated in the round alongside existing investors, including Overmatch, 8090 Industries, Felicis, Marlinspike, Shield Capital, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Silent Ventures, Veriten, and Gladebrook. With this raise, Armada is unlocking modular data center capacity, enabling organizations to achieve autonomous, AI-powered operations anywhere in the world. (source: X)

SendCutSend ended its "bootstrapped" era by raising $110M in venture capital, reaching a $1B valuation. The round was led by Sequoia, Paradigm, and Stripe Cofounders Patrick and John Collison. The funds will be used to scale U.S. manufacturing hubs, expand to laser welding, and push toward a goal of same-day or next-day delivery for custom parts. Founder Jim Belosic previously avoided VC, calling it "expensive money," but accepted the massive round to build real-world physical infrastructure and re-shore manufacturing. (source: The Wall St Journal)

Observable Space is also announcing the close of its $90M Series A funding round, led by Lux Capital, co-led by Upfront Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Island Green Capital, and RTX Ventures, and with participation from BRV Capital, Fathom Fund, and Venrex. The company is using the new investments to accelerate laser communications partnerships, scale its in-space systems, and expand its international operations. (source: Observable Space)

GridCARE, the pioneer of Power Acceleration for AI, today announced the closing of its $64M oversubscribed Series A financing, representing a significant step-up in valuation from its previous round less than a year ago. The round was led by Sutter Hill Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s most storied firms and a defining force behind the modern compute era as an original investor in category-defining companies such as NVIDIA (accelerated computing), Snowflake (cloud data infrastructure), and Astera Labs (AI compute connectivity). Additional participants include John Doerr, utility strategics National Grid Partners and Future Energy Ventures; Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective; Stanford University; and existing investors Xora, Aina Ventures, Overture, Acclimate Ventures, and Clearvision Ventures, alongside several prominent individuals and family offices deeply involved in the AI infrastructure buildout. (source: BusinessWire)

Picogrid announced that it has raised $45M in a Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners to expand its product family, increase deployments, and take its integration tech into new operational domains. New investors Washington Harbour and GSBackers participated in the round, alongside existing backers Initialized Capital, Starburst Ventures, Credo Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Giant Step Capital, and defense industry angels. (source: Tectonic)

Maritime startup Quartermaster raised a $43M Series A funding to turn ships into a sensing network. The round was co-led by First Round Capital and Quiet Capital. (source: Fundraise Insider)

Tomorrow AI announced an additional $35M in financing, bringing its Series F round to $210M. This investment came from Pitango, an existing partner who chose to deepen their commitment, alongside their partner, Harel Insurance & Finance. This capital will help accelerate what comes next: scaling DeepSky, advancing our agentic platform and AI models, and delivering real-time, actionable intelligence to the customers who depend on us every day. (source: LinkedIn)

Hadron Energy, Inc. has successfully completed its business combination with GigCapital7 and begins trading on Nasdaq today under the ticker symbol $HDRN.
Through the transaction, Hadron secured approximately $31M in total equity funding with zero debt, resulting in approximately $24.5M of cash on the balance sheet. The capital raised will support reactor design, NRC licensing, supply-chain development, and future deployments targeting AI data centers, industrial facilities, defense applications, and critical infrastructure. This milestone positions Hadron as the first publicly traded company focused on light-water micro-modular reactor technology. (source: LinkedIn)

August Robotics announced that it has raised a $30M Series B equity financing round, led by Big Pi Ventures. Existing investors Blackbird, Skip Capital, Tanarra, and Future Family Office are participating in the syndicate, alongside incoming construction-specialist US investor GS Futures. This latest financing will fast-track August Robotics’ mission to automate critical physical-world workflows through robot fleets coordinated via a single software, hardware, and fleet-management platform. The company’s robots are designed to massively accelerate critical building tasks with ultra-high precision, alleviating pressures on scarce manual labor. (source: August Robotics)

CREW Carbon, a NYC-based water technology company, has raised $25M in a Series A funding round led by Burnt Island Ventures with participation from AP Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, Builders Vision, Kibo Invest, Idemitsu Ventures, New York Ventures, and family office investors, alongside existing investors Counteract, ANIMO Ventures, Connecticut Innovations, Ponderosa Ventures, and Echo River Capital. The $25M funding round included $19M in Series A equity financing and $6M from grants and other non-dilutive funding sources. (source: Startup Rise)

Horizon Aircraft, an advanced aerospace company developing one of the first hybrid-electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with certain institutional investors for the purchase and sale of an aggregate of 9,960,160 Class A Ordinary Shares ("Common Shares"). The offering is expected to result in gross proceeds of approximately $25M, before deducting offering expenses. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about May 27, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Horizon Aircraft intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fully fund the completion of the Cavorite X7 prototype and advance the program toward testing, certification, and commercial production. (source: Access Newswire)

Arkeus, an Australian defense startup building AI-powered sensing systems for drones, raised $18M in a Series A led by Aussie VC QIC Ventures to expand its global footprint, including in the US. New investors R+VC, Folkore Ventures, and DYNE Ventures also participated in the round, alongside existing backers Main Sequence Ventures, Salus Ventures, and Beaten Zone. (source: Tectonic)

AI-for-cybersecurity startup RevEng.AI raised a $15M Series A funding to advance its cyberthreat-detecting AI software and expand in the US. The round was led by the NATO Innovation Fund with participation from Sands Capital, IQT, IQ Capital, and Episode One. (source: Tectonic)

Casimir, one of the first business ventures to emerge from the media attention surrounding quantum vacuum energy, announced it has secured $12M in oversubscribed seed funding. Scout Ventures led this funding round. Deep-tech and venture-focused investors backed the round. These included Lavrock Ventures, Cottonwood Technology, and Capital Factory. American Deep Tech and Tim Draper of Draper Associates also participated. The capital will support the launch of the MicroSparc. It is a semiconductor chip that draws energy from the quantum vacuum. This means it needs no battery, charging cable, or internal fuel. (source: VentureBurn)

Autonomous Cyber has secured $12M in funding to drive US cyber capability. The funding was secured over two rounds, with Shield Capital leading the initial round and with participation from Fulcrum Venture Group, Bloomberg Beta, Mana Ventures, Multiball Capital, 202 Ventures, The Veteran Fund, Parallel VC, Team Builder Ventures, SBXi, Blackbird, and more. The U.S. Air Force has also selected Autonomous Cyber for a Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI). (source: LinkedIn)

Caribou raised $2.7M Seed from YC, Blue Wire Capital, Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company, and Ventures Together to build the autonomous tax firm. Caribou sets transfer pricing policies and intragroup agreements for international businesses. (source: LinkedIn)

Overwatch AI raised a $1.5M pre-seed round, including United Airlines Ventures and Baobab Ventures, with participation from Pegasus Innovation Lab, Masia, Dooks Capital, and a group of angel investors. Overwatch AI develops an operational intelligence platform designed to help airline teams access critical flight information and improve operational decision-making. (source: LinkedIn)

AGREEMENTS, PARTNERSHIPS, & CONTRACTS

Intellisense Systems, a leading provider of advanced avionics and sensor
systems, announced its selection by Boeing to provide Data Concentrator Units (DCU) and Multifunction Displays (MFD) for the U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III Flight Deck Replacement (FDR) program. This critical technology refresh is designed to resolve obsolescence and enhance the operational capabilities of the global C-17 fleet, with an estimated lifetime award value exceeding $400M. (source: Intellisense Systems)

Observable Space, a full-stack, vertically-integrated space technology company advancing laser communications, ground-based optical sensing, and in-space systems, today announced a $94M sole-sourced Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) award from the U.S. Space Force. The award is part of the Department of War’s Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program to augment existing Space Domain Awareness capabilities via expeditionary, off-grid optical ground sensing stations. (source: Observable Space)

Hypersonic aircraft startup Hermeus scored a $159M contract modification from the
Defense Innovation Unit to continue developing hypersonic airdraft and “demonstrate high-Mach flight and high-speed payload release,” bringing the OG contract's ceiling to $219M. (source: Tectonic)

York Space Systems announced a definitive agreement today to acquire Solestial, the space-solar-cell manufacturer, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is York’s third this year. Together, these acquisitions follow a similar strategy: giving York greater control over its supply chain, and setting the company up to expand into higher-growth markets. Under the agreement, which is expected to close in Q2, Solestial will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary, while giving York greater access to cost-efficient solar technology. (source: Payload)

Rocket Lab announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Motiv Space Systems (“Motiv”), a California-based company specializing in space robotics, motion control systems, and precision mechanisms for spacecraft. The acquisition will advance two strategic objectives for Rocket Lab: it will add Mars-proven robotics heritage and capability for advanced planetary and national security missions, and it will also close one of the final gaps in Rocket Lab's vertical integration strategy by bringing in-house costly and supply-constrained spacecraft components, including solar array drive assemblies (SADAs) and other precision mechanisms and motion control systems. The acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2026, subject to the completion of customary closing conditions. Motiv will be branded Rocket Lab Robotics. Motiv’s specialized team of 50 engineers and technicians will bring deep space robotics knowledge and advanced technical capabilities to Rocket Lab. (source: Globe Newswire)

Rocket Lab has been awarded a $90M contract by the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC) to design, manufacture, integrate, and operate two geostationary (GEO) satellites hosting the Heimdall space domain awareness (SDA) payload. The award represents Rocket Lab's first satellite production program for geostationary orbit and extends the Company's vertically integrated mission model into a new orbital regime. Rocket Lab will serve as prime contractor and end-to-end mission provider, responsible for spacecraft design and manufacture, integration of the in-house Heimdall optical payload produced by Rocket Lab Optical Systems, launch integration onto a government-furnished launch vehicle, and on-orbit operations for up to five years following commissioning. (source: Rocket Lab)

Satellogic announced an $18M+, one-year agreement with an undisclosed international defense customer. In February, Satellogic launched a new data product, called Aleph Observer, to offer customers persistent monitoring capabilities through its NewSat EO constellation. The contract marks the company’s first large agreement since it made that strategic shift to persistent-monitoring capabilities. (source: Payload)

Voyager Technologies was awarded a DARPA Burn n’ Go Phase 2 contract, valued at $16.5M, to advance the development of a new propellant-embedded control technology that provides solid rocket motors (SRMs) with tailorable, post-manufacturing thrust control, enabling improved performance and manufacturing efficiency. (source: BusinessWire)

Astrolab announced that NASA has selected the company as one of two providers of a crewed lunar rover for the Artemis program, advancing the agency’s plans to establish sustained surface mobility at the lunar south pole. The award follows NASA’s announcement of its Ignition initiative, which revised the agency’s approach to lunar surface mobility and called for industry to deliver smaller rovers on an accelerated timeline. In response, Astrolab adapted its FLEX rover architecture to develop a new vehicle known as the Crewed Lunar Vehicle, or CLV-1. Like FLEX, CLV-1 is designed to support astronaut operations and science activities on the Moon. (source: Astrolab)

Swap Robotics announced a $10M+ USD robotic agreement with DESRI (f/k/a D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments) for their utility-scale solar sites. DESRI also invested in Swap Robotics after reviewing the competitive landscape of the solar robotics industry. (source: LinkedIn)

Elbit Systems' FUSE has completed the acquisition of the Israeli technology company Bluewhite Robotics, a developer of AI-powered autonomous solutions for critical off-road and defense applications. Under the terms of the agreement, FUSE acquired 100% of Bluewhite’s shares. (source: Elbit Systems)

WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!) 

🗒 Silicon Valley Defense Group released its fourth annual NatSec100 report. Download the 2026 edition here.

🇺🇸 Cantos’ Grant Gregory explains why he’s excited about Cantos portfolio company, Resurgent Industries, in this Substack.

🎯 Contrary Research outlines how the missile supply chain became so brittle and why pursuing liquid propulsion is likely the best route to rebuilding a national munitions stockpile with a realistic timeframe and budget.

🚤 Forbes profiled Havoc’s Paul Lwin as he and his Cofounder, Joe Turner, aim to become the U.S. military’s go-to maker of specialized software not just for uncrewed boats but across all domains, after recently acquiring a couple of small aerial and land-drone startups.

HOW I CAN HELP YOU

Here are 3* ways I can help when the time is right:

1. Find a new home for your growing business. You're scaling fast, and you don't have time to become a CRE expert. I do this every day.

2. Sublease your space. Outgrown your office, but don't want to pay two rents? I'll help you find a subtenant.

3. Negotiate your lease renewal. Want to make sure you’re getting a fair deal from your Landlord? In my experience, you can never be too sure. Start 12 months out, so you're not scrambling at the last minute.

Strong references available. Let's talk.

*Not an exhaustive list 💪

Thanks for reading.

If you’d like your office and/or manufacturing space or business profiled - or even your city! - let me know. It’s always fun to explore and share the different components of the hard tech industry.

Erik Stiebel
Founder and Vice President
CA DRE License #02080746
424.241.4795 | [email protected] 
Follow me on 𝕏