Three Startups Reinventing Critical Infrastructure

Three Startups Reinventing Critical Infrastructure – The a16z Show

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Bullish

ULYSSES— Ulysses is building autonomous underwater robots for ocean exploration, conservation, commercial infrastructure inspection, and defense applications. The company has raised funding and is positioned to capitalize on the undersea domain where the US can create decisive advantage over China.
MARIANAMINERALS— Mariana Minerals is a vertically integrated software-first minerals project developer and operator focused on critical minerals. The company aims to leverage LLMs and automation to reduce construction and operational costs, making subscale mining assets economically viable.
RADIANT— Radiant is building mass-producible portable microreactors for off-grid applications. The company is on schedule to have a full-scale reactor critical by 2026 and is the only new reactor permitted to go to full power, targeting production of one reactor per week.
COPPER— Copper has strong macro demand trends driven by electrification, grid expansion, AI infrastructure, and EVs. Copper ore grades are declining globally, making extraction harder and supporting higher prices.
LITHIUM— Lithium is at the bottom of a commodity cycle with blood in the water, creating an attractive entry point. Demand needs to increase 4x in the next decade for battery production, and the current trough presents a buying opportunity.
STARLINK— Starlink is a critical enabler for seasteading and ocean habitation, providing reliable internet connectivity in remote ocean locations for the first time, making previously impractical ocean settlements economically viable.
ALUMINUM— Aluminum is underestimated as a critical mineral. It is the number one most consumed metal in defense applications and is critical for grid transmission lines and automotive lightweighting.

Bearish

MININGMAJORS— Large incumbent mining companies are calcified with low risk appetite, decentralized operations, slow adoption of technology, and inefficient construction timelines. They only build one large mine every five years and struggle to underwrite projects without massive scale.
SAAS— SaaS products targeting the mining industry face a death spiral due to operator distrust, slow adoption cycles, and the industry's resistance to recommendations from small companies. The barrier to getting operators to trust SaaS tools is extremely high.

Not investment advice.

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