Defense Drives Surge in Space Investments скачать в хорошем качестве

Defense Drives Surge in Space Investments

The commercial space industry attracted $5.8 billion across 115 companies in the third quarter of 2025, putting the year on track to rank among the top three funding years on record, according to Space Capital’s latest quarterly report (https://www.exterrajsc.com/p/space-ec...) . The report noted that NASA faces budget constraints, with the administration proposing cuts while Congress works to maintain funding near $25 billion. That is pushing defense spending to emerge as the primary investment driver, with the Space Force potentially receiving $40 billion in fiscal year 2026, representing 40% year-over-year growth. In a video released by Space Capital, founder and CEO Chad Anderson said companies seeking investments are putting a lot of emphasis on the Golden Dome program. “Q3 saw 5.8 billion invested across 115 space companies. 2025 is already ahead of 2024 and is on track to be one of the top three years of investment funding in the space economy ever. So quite a rebound over the last few years. And VCs driving a lot of that investment, 86% of rounds were driven by VCs. and into infrastructure,” Anderson said. “So $4.4 billion of that went to infrastructure. It’s up 12% quarter over quarter. Satellite manufacturing and defense capabilities really being the recipient of a lot of those dollars, right? And again, golden dome being a key piece of this. The pitch decks that we see with the public companies when they’re talking about their earnings, everyone is talking about dual use and talking about golden dome and how they fit into this program, even though we have no idea how big it is.” Investment in geospatial intelligence applications surged from $1 billion in 2020 to a record $21.6 billion as of the third quarter of 2025. Google launched AlphaEarth Foundations during the quarter, creating a planetary-scale AI model from satellite and aerial data. Space Capital partner Justus Kilian said there are several companies that are poised to take advantage of the shift. “This paradigm of diseconomies of scale to economies of scale is likely going to underpin significant growth and significant opportunity for applications to be built. And so I think that’s powering some of it. I think The other opportunity is like as AI moves into the physical world, you’re going to need to have intelligence on how you navigate and understand what’s around you,” Killian said. “So autonomous robotic systems, whether it be humanoid robots or aerial vehicles or underwater submersibles, they’re all going to need to understand those two sort of foundational capabilities. And so we’ve included a number of companies that sort of fit into that model, which includes World Labs, Physical Intelligence, Figure AI, and then also like Legend and Globe Holder and Zephyr, they’re a little bit more on sort of the geo side. So those are companies to be watching and you’ll see some of those numbers show up in the report and account for some of the big growth that we’re seeing. “ The report also pointed out that SpaceX maintained its position as the world’s most valuable private company at a $400 billion valuation despite political uncertainty, and in the infrastructure sector, satellite manufacturing showed sustained momentum. The report tracked cumulative private market equity investment of $393 billion across 2,286 unique companies since 2009. 0 In an example of the increased interest in defense companies. a definitive agreement has been reached for the acquisition of national security technology company SciTec (https://www.exterrajsc.com/p/scitec-a...) , Inc. by Firefly Aerospace for approximately $855 million. The package includes a combination of $300 million in cash and $555 million in Firefly shares issued to SciTec owners at a price of $50 per share. Firefly says acquisition will advance its comprehensive space services by adding mission-proven defense software analytics, remote sensing, and multi-phenomenology data expertise. SciTec’s core capabilities – which include missile warning, tracking and defense, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, space domain awareness, and autonomous command and control – will supplement Firefly’s launch, lunar, and in-space services. SciTec further adds ground and onboard data processing as well as AI-enabled systems designed for low latency operations to support advanced threat tracking and response across multiple domains. The acquisition is expected to close by year end 2025, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. 0 Starlab Space recently announced that Belgium-based space engineering and payload integration firm Space Applications Services has joined the company (https://www.exterrajsc.com/p/space-ap...) as a joint venture partner and investor. The partnership expands Starlab’s global footprint and extends the capabilities available to Starlab customers. SpaceApps contrib...