One OS to rule all drones

PLUS: This plasma beam vaporizes space junk

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Jennifer Mossalgue & Rowan Cheung
September 23, 2025

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Defense software startup Auterion just raised $130M to fix the drone world’s biggest flaw: nothing works together.

Now valued at $600M, it’s betting that open architecture — not vendor lock-in — will define the future of autonomous warfare. But can one platform really unify an industry built on secrecy and silos?

In today’s tech rundown:

  • This startup wants to be the ‘Microsoft for drones’

  • Scientists discover new way to obliterate space junk

  • AI startup expands healthcare to the uninsured

  • These engineered microbes fight cancer

  • Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AUTERION

Image source: Auterion

The Rundown: Defense software startup Auterion just raised $130M to become the drone world's operating system, hitting a $600M valuation by solving the industry’s biggest headache: making incompatible hardware actually work together.

The details:

  • The Swiss-American startup’s open-source platform allows multiple drone brands to operate seamlessly on shared missions, Bloomberg reports.

  • Auterion's software powers everything from Ukrainian battlefield operations and Taiwanese defense systems to U.S. Department of Defense contracts.

  • The funding reflects growing demand for Western alternatives to China’s DJI ecosystem, as governments seek domestically controlled platforms.

  • Auterion's timing capitalizes on NATO's push for interoperable defense systems and the Pentagon's shift toward software-defined military hardware.

Why it matters: Auterion's bet is that whoever controls the software layer will capture the biggest slice of a market projected to hit $58B by 2026. If they succeed, Auterion won't just be selling software; they'll be the invisible backbone enabling everything from Amazon deliveries to coordinated military strikes.

TOGETHER WITH SANA

The Rundown: Sana’s AI agents connect with 100+ tools—Gmail, Outlook, Teams, Slack, Salesforce, Google Drive, BigQuery, and more—so every workflow is powered by instant answers and automation. No more silos, no more wasted time. When AI is everywhere you work, your team moves faster, stays focused, and delivers more.

Use Sana Agents to:

  • Orchestrate actions across all apps and data

  • Instantly search, summarize, and automate without switching context

  • Slash operational overhead by 10-20x

SPACE TECH

Image source: Tohoku University

The Rundown: Space junk is multiplying so fast that it could permanently ground rockets, but Japanese researchers cracked the physics problem with a plasma system that vaporizes debris while staying perfectly positioned.

The details:

  • Low Earth orbit contains over 34K pieces of trackable debris traveling at 17,500 mph that threaten rocket launches.

  • Contact methods using nets or hooks risk destroying cleanup satellites when debris spins unpredictably, while lasers can push the cleanup satellite away.

  • Tohoku University researchers, led by Kazunori Takahashi, have engineered an elegant workaround inspired by fusion reactor technology. 

  • Their bidirectional thruster fires plasma beams in opposite directions — one to slow debris, another to counter recoil and maintain position.

Why it matters: It's like a perfectly balanced cosmic tugboat that stays locked in position while dragging space junk to fiery destruction. Without debris cleanup tech like this, we risk losing the satellites that power GPS, weather forecasting, and global communications, essentially getting cut off from space entirely.

AKIDO LABS

Image source: Akido Labs

The Rundown: AI-powered healthcare startup Akido Labs is automating the basics of frontline medicine, using large language models to extend care access for underserved patients across Southern California.

The details:

  • The company’s proprietary AI system, Scope AI, automates routine tasks like symptom intake, appointment prep, reminders, and treatment explanations.

  • Similar to rival K Health, Akido aims to alleviate physician burnout and extend limited clinical capacity in areas where doctor shortages are most severe.

  • Patients can interact with the AI through text-based interfaces, receiving immediate responses rather than waiting for in-person consultations.

  • Akido Care is Akido Labs’ rapidly expanding medical network that uses Scope AI to deliver fast, in-person care via next-day visits and house calls.

Why it matters: The startup, which partners with safety‑net providers across Southern California, argues that AI‑driven triage and education could keep low‑income patients healthier at scale, without requiring more doctors who simply don’t exist. It’s a risky bet, with regulators debating what role, if any, AI should play in clinical decision‑making.

BIOTECH INNOVATIONS

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Researchers from Singapore and China just engineered gut bacteria into a living cancer drug that infiltrates colorectal tumors, potentially revolutionizing cancer treatment through microbes that recruit the body's own defenses.

The details:

  • Scientists weaponized Salmonella bacteria to seek out colorectal tumors, then release cancer-fighting proteins directly into the target.

  • The engineered bacteria contain a self-destruct mechanism — they multiply inside tumors, then explode and release their therapeutic payload.

  • The released proteins wake up the immune system's sleeping soldiers, turning the tumor environment from cancer-friendly to cancer-hostile territory.

  • This process builds immune command centers directly inside tumors, coordinating sustained attacks against cancer cells from within.

Why it matters: This breakthrough merges synthetic biology with immunotherapy to create “programmable living medicines” — self-replicating treatments that turn tumors into the architects of their own destruction. It's still early days, but unlike chemotherapy's collateral damage to healthy tissue, these bacteria target only cancer.

QUICK HITS

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft asked their H-1B visa employees to remain in the U.S. and to return if traveling, in response to Trump's new $100K fee for H-1B visas.

Alibaba is actively courting Amazon brands to join its global AliExpress marketplace, intensifying efforts to expand in the U.S. and compete on Amazon’s home turf.

The maker of the Oura fitness ring is raising $875M in a Series E round that values the company at nearly $11B, according to Bloomberg.

SpaceX's Starship lunar lander may face delays and not be ready for its planned 2027 moon mission, reports Space News.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fully exited its stake in Chinese EV-maker BYD, ending a 17-year investment, as new tariffs challenged BYD’s growth.

Swiss AI lab Giotto is seeking to raise funding at a valuation above $1B, positioning itself as Europe’s latest contender in the race for AGI, Reuters reports.

Stellantis canceled its plans to produce an electrified Jeep Gladiator 4xe, citing changing customer preferences and a shift in product strategy.

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan told The New York Times that AI could enable a three-day workweek, echoing predictions from Bill Gates and Nvidia's Jensen Huang.

COMMUNITY

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Rowan, Jennifer, and Joey—The Rundown’s editorial team

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