American Hardtech Weekly Roundup #10

Anduril and the Navy unveiled Arsenal-2, a $6.6B plant near Baltimore that will build Virginia-class submarine parts, with taxpayers getting a 40% stake in the shipyard. “We have lost industrial capacity. Today, we start to rebuild it,” said Vice Adm. Robert Gaucher. The same week, the Army gave Anduril a battlefield command-and-control contract worth up to $1.8B.

SpaceX agreed to buy Grain Management’s 800 MHz spectrum for about $8B, per the WSJ. These low-band airwaves reach farther and work better indoors. Musk called it the last piece SpaceX needs for complete phone coverage in America. The deal needs FCC approval.

Boeing won a Lockheed Martin contract worth about $14.7B, with terms still being finalized, to triple production of the seekers that guide PAC-3 MSE interceptors, Patriot’s most advanced missile. The work is centered in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, its in-house lender, offered Wolfspeed a conditional loan of up to $1.5B to expand U.S. production of silicon carbide and gallium nitride chips, in exchange for warrants on up to 7.5% of the company. It also offered PsiQuantum $150M for its quantum computer factory.

Raytheon won a multiyear contract worth up to $6.3B for SM-3 Block IB interceptors, which destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in midflight. Multiyear deals let suppliers buy materials in bulk and plan capacity.

Nuclear uprates, which add new equipment to get more power from existing reactors, drew billions this week. Constellation signed a 20-year deal with Google to add 890 MW across 11 plants. The DOE offered Vistra a conditional loan of up to $4.2B for uprates at three plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

El Segundo’s Amca won the first award under the Army’s new fast-track manufacturing program. It will re-engineer and produce hard-to-source radar and power parts for an unnamed priority missile. Amca buys aging parts makers and uses its software to redesign components in weeks instead of years.

Atlas Atomics, a stealth nuclear startup co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, raised about $400M at a roughly $1.9B valuation in a round led by General Catalyst, Bloomberg reports. It’s reportedly developing a heavy-water reactor that runs without enriched uranium.

Emeryville’s Atomic Machines came out of stealth with $250M raised over six years for a system that builds tiny working machines, like motors and switches, directly from code. “If vibe coding is how software gets made now, this is the start of vibe manufacturing,” said Gigafund’s Luke Nosek.

NASA released its final request for proposals for commercial space stations to replace the ISS. It plans fixed-price contracts with at least two companies in the first phase. Proposals are due Dec. 8, and Administrator Isaacman said NASA wants companies ready to invest their own money.

Startups kept winning rocket motor work. Ursa Major landed $137M from the Navy for two missile programs. X-Bow won up to $69.7M for a Navy booster, money that also tools its Luling, Texas plant for up to 500 motors a year.

Big rounds kept coming. Pasadena’s Oratomic raised $475M at a reported $5.4B valuation for neutral-atom quantum computers. Type One Energy raised $200M for its planned fusion plant in Tennessee. LA’s Parallel Systems raised $100M for autonomous electric rail cars.

South Korea’s Nuri rocket succeeded on its fifth flight, and Hanwha Aerospace ran launch control for the first time. Korea plans to hand Nuri launches fully to private industry by 2029.

Germany approved four more MEKO A-200 frigates from TKMS, bringing its planned fleet of submarine-hunting warships to eight. Germany had already dropped Damen’s troubled F126 frigate program. First delivery is due in 2029.

Canada’s General Fusion reported electron temperatures above 1 keV, more than 11 million °C, on its LM26 machine. The UK Atomic Energy Authority helped confirm the measurement. Its approach squeezes plasma with a metal wall instead of lasers or giant magnets.