{"id":"1792759431292-tech-segment","slug":"sodium-batteries-war-dogs-and-a-870m-raise","title":"Sodium batteries, war dogs, and a $870M raise","summary":"TypeSafe AI announced an $870 million Series A in October 2026, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Sequoia Capital and existing investor DCVC. Multiple sources, including the company itself and TechCrunch, confirm the round at a $7.5 billion valuation. This is stated as a personal/anecdotal story about Scale AI's early history. It reads as a narrative account rather than a checkable factual assertion and would need no correction on air.","publishedAt":"2026-10-23T12:43:51.292Z","channel":{"id":"tech","name":"Oncast Tech","language":"en"},"show":"Tech Morning","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: TypeSafe AI announced an $870 million Series A in October 2026, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Sequoia Capital and existing investor DCVC. Multiple sources, including the company itself and TechCrunch, confirm the round at a $7.5 billion valuation. This is stated as a personal/anecdotal story about Scale AI's early history. It reads as a narrative account rather than a checkable factual assertion and would need no correction on air.\nSource: [techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/09/the-maker-of-non-text-ai-model-jev-valued-at-7-5b-just-weeks-after-launch/) NAMES: TypeSafe AI = San Francisc (https://x.com/BradleyrJacobs/status/2113037168431997137)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"TypeSafe AI announced an $870 million Series A in October 2026, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Sequoia Capital and existing investor DCVC. Multiple sources, including the company itself and TechCrunch, confirm the round at a $7.5 billion valuation. This is stated as a personal/anecdotal story about Scale AI's early history. It reads as a narrative account rather than a checkable factual assertion and would need no correction on air.","sourceName":"[techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/09/the-maker-of-non-text-ai-model-jev-valued-at-7-5b-just-weeks-after-launch/) NAMES: TypeSafe AI = San Francisc","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/BradleyrJacobs/status/2113037168431997137","claim":"If you're a fractional CMO, the best time to reach a startup is right after they raise. Before they post the marketing role. Before 300 other people apply. Here are 8 companies that just raised: • TypeSafe AI - $870M Series A - AI/dev tools • Arda Industries - $232M Series A","author":"Bradley Jacobs (@BradleyrJacobs)"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/BradleyrJacobs/status/2113037168431997137","name":"[techcrunch.com](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/09/the-maker-of-non-text-ai-model-jev-valued-at-7-5b-just-weeks-after-launch/) NAMES: TypeSafe AI = San Francisc","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"Bradley Jacobs (@BradleyrJacobs)"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792759431292-tech-segment-sodium-batteries-war-dogs-and-a-870m-raise","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/tech","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792759431292-tech-segment-sodium-batteries-war-dogs-and-a-870m-raise","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792759431292-tech-segment-sodium-batteries-war-dogs-and-a-870m-raise and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Chris","text":"A hundred and eighty years after the first atomic battery, sodium-ion is finally moving out of the lab and into real products."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"That's a very specific way to start. You sound like a man with a PowerPoint."},{"host":"Chris","text":"David Roberts over on Bluesky just posted four words: 'Sodium-ion batteries scaling up.' And he's right."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"He's a climate writer, so when he says scaling, he means factories, supply chains, actual grid storage."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The big deal is sodium is everywhere. It's in seawater, it's cheap, and it doesn't come with the geopolitical mess of lithium and cobalt."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But the energy density is still lower than lithium. That's the whole reason we use lithium in the first place."},{"host":"Chris","text":"That matters for your phone and your Tesla, sure. But for grid storage and home batteries? You don't need the lightest battery, you need the cheapest one."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Which is exactly why China is pouring billions into sodium-ion plants. They understand the game."},{"host":"Chris","text":"And that's the part that should wake people up. We spent a decade chasing lithium mines in Australia and Chile. Now the next battery chemistry is basically salt and carbon."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Alright, but let me be the buzzkill again. 'Scaling up' is doing a lot of work in that post. What's actually shipping?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"You want specifics. Fine. Several Chinese manufacturers are already putting sodium-ion cells into electric two-wheelers and small city cars."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"So it's not replacing lithium in your Rivian. It's eating the low end first. That's how every battery technology wins."},{"host":"Chris","text":"And I, for one, welcome our new salt-battery overlords. Cheaper energy storage means cheaper renewable power. That's a win."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"You're unusually optimistic before nine. Did you have your fourth coffee already?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"Fifth. Well, speaking of startups making extreme promises..."},{"host":"Chris","text":"There's a new one being talked about that is either the most important defense startup of the decade or a very elaborate troll."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"I saw this. A Forbes piece by Amy Feldman says Ben Lamm and Palmer Luckey are teaming up on something called Warhound."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Ben Lamm, the de-extinction guy who wants to bring back the woolly mammoth, and Palmer Luckey, who builds AI weapons. According to that Forbes piece, together they want to genetically engineer dogs for the military."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And the valuation is supposedly one point two billion dollars. Right out of stealth."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I need to be very clear here: we have not independently confirmed this. No official announcement, no SEC filing, nothing beyond the Forbes piece and people reacting to it."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Right. And if it is real, what does 'engineer war dogs' even mean? Faster dogs? Stronger dogs? Dogs that don't need sleep?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"Knowing Luckey, it's probably a sensor platform with four legs. The dog is just the delivery mechanism for cameras and AI."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Carl Bergstrom on Bluesky did not hold back. He said, quote, 'If you thought Ben Lamm was a shithead, you underestimated him. He's worse.'"},{"host":"Chris","text":"A measured, academic response, as always."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But he's making a real point, Chris. We're already uncomfortable with robot dogs carrying guns. Now you want to modify a living animal for combat?"},{"host":"Chris","text":"Here's my thing: the military has used dogs for a century. Bomb sniffing, patrol, search and rescue. This is a continuation of that, just with better tools."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"No, no, wait. There's a line between training a German Shepherd and editing its genome."},{"host":"Chris","text":"So you're fine with the dog risking its life, just not with the dog being built for the job?"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"I'm not 'fine' with any of it. But consent matters. A dog can't consent to being a weapons platform."},{"host":"Chris","text":"It can't consent to being a pet, either. That's never been the standard."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"This is different and you know it. You're designing a creature specifically to be deployed in a war zone. That's not the same as a K9 unit."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Look, if the choice is a robot dog that costs two hundred grand or a engineered dog that costs a fraction, the military will pick the dog every time."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"That's exactly my point! It's cheaper, so it's expendable. That's not progress, that's a moral hazard."},{"host":"Chris","text":"I'll grant you the ethics are messy. But the technology is coming whether we like it or not. Better it's Lamm and Luckey doing it in the open than someone else doing it in secret."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"I don't accept that. Just because something is inevitable doesn't mean we have to applaud the people doing it."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Fair. But the best parody of the whole thing came from pixelatedboat on Bluesky. He posted: 'I have teamed up with Ben Lamm and Palmer Luckey on a new startup to genetically engineer dogs that don't shit.'"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Now that is a product I would invest in. Forget the military, that's a billion-dollar consumer app."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The replies have been brutal. Some are like, 'Finally, a dog I can take to a dinner party.' Others are demanding the mammoth project be refocused on not-shedding cats."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Honestly, between mammoths and war dogs, Lamm is leaning hard into the mad scientist brand. It's working for him."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Well, if the Warhound story turns out to be real, it'll be the biggest defense story of the year. If it's not... it's still a fascinating window into what people think is next."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"But let's move from dogs to pure data. A story about Scale AI that's been bouncing around X this morning."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Right. Someone going by Sof posted a thread about Scale AI's early days. Apparently six months after Y Combinator, their first big customer was Cruise."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Cruise, the self-driving startup. And Alexandr Wang went to his lead investor and said, 'Let's go all in on self-driving cars.'"},{"host":"Chris","text":"The investor said the market was too small. Scale did it anyway."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"That's a hell of a bet. Data labeling for autonomous vehicles is now a massive industry. And Scale is valued at tens of billions."},{"host":"Chris","text":"The lesson here isn't 'ignore your investors.' It's 'if you have direct line of sight to a specific customer with a specific need, that's better than market forecasts.'"},{"host":"Matilda","text":"And it worked because Cruise needed labeled data at a scale no one had done before. Scale didn't create the market, it just rode the wave first."},{"host":"Chris","text":"Which is the whole game in startups. Find an unglamorous need, lock in a big customer, and the valuation takes care of itself."},{"host":"Matilda","text":"Sof didn't have any top replies on the thread, but it's one of those stories that makes you question every investor who says the market is too small. The circle of life in tech: sodium batteries, war dogs, and Scale AI's stubborn bet. Happy Friday."}]}