Miles

Today in Washington, D.C., we brought together leaders from government, industry, and the investment community for the first Energy Advantage forum. The premise was simple: Energy security is national security, and America’s ability to produce, innovate, and adapt must become a strategic advantage. At MATERIAL, we’re working to fundamentally change how batteries are designed and manufactured, with the ambition of transforming America’s domestic energy storage capabilities. But working on the problem firsthand makes one thing clear: technology alone won’t solve it. The challenges span industrial capacity, supply chains, investment, defense requirements, and national strategy. Progress depends on connecting efforts that too often operate independently. That’s why we helped convene Energy Advantage. Not because we have all the answers, or because we should lead the national conversation, but because we saw an opportunity to bring together people who each hold an important part of the solution. Our ambitions are significant, but the national challenge is larger than any one company. Sometimes the most meaningful contribution we can make is connecting people who can accomplish far more together than any of us can independently. My sincere thanks to Under Secretary of the Army Michael Obadal, Major General Christopher Schneider, and Joshua Volz from the Department of Energy for their leadership and participation, and to everyone who contributed to today’s discussion. Today was a starting point. The real work is what happens next. energyadvantage.org

you guys, ai is just code. we should have just called it “supercode”. nobody would be freaking out about anything.

I'm excited to announce that Thoron has raised $2M in pre-seed funding to build the American reference standard drone system for utilities. The round was led by @AvistaUtilities with participation from @oviohq , @allianceangels, Spokane Angel Alliance & Ignite Northwest, and others. As power grid demand reaches historic highs, American energy dominance and sovereignty depend on the adoption of new technologies. At the same time, regulatory changes have sharply limited access to the high-quality, operator-first drone systems utilities rely on. We built Thoron to put vertically integrated, AI-enabled aircraft directly in operators’ hands, strengthening our power grid and ensuring the US leads the future of energy. We’ve assembled a world-class team to tackle these challenges and rapidly prototype alongside major U.S. partners. This funding will accelerate our development pipeline, scaling us from functional prototypes to real customer deployments.

I got in a lot of trouble with the comms head at Mercedes at the time because back then the only people who could speak to the press were Toto, @LewisHamilton , or @NicoRosberg ... but I had to do it. Turns out I inspired 3 Miami-native F1 engineers from that article. Price worth paying imo.