CNBC
• Davis Giangiulio
PhillipCapital reversed its SpaceX rating from sell to buy and tripled its price target to $250, citing upside from the company’s AI business. Separately, Bernstein said Starlink’s improving profitability could support aggressive broadband and mobile pricing, even as subscriber growth slows.
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The US Air Force wants artificial intelligence to analyze aerial refueling operations using cameras mounted on tanker aircraft. The system is intended to provide tanker crews with rapid “hot wash” feedback, applying automated analysis to review refueling activity.
Ukraine is weighing sovereign communications satellites from ICEYE and Nokia, while the UK seeks lightweight satellite links for beyond-line-of-sight UAV operations. Separately, BAE Systems demonstrated a TRV-150 drone firing multiple APKWS engagements without landing, and L3Harris won a U.S. Army contract worth up to $60 million to develop and flight-test a long-range drone interceptor.
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PhillipCapital reversed its SpaceX rating from sell to buy and tripled its price target to $250, citing upside from the company’s AI business. Separately, Bernstein said Starlink’s improving profitability could support aggressive broadband and mobile pricing, even as subscriber growth slows.
NASA has awarded U.S. physical artificial intelligence company AstraQua a $1.275 million Phase II contract to develop AstraSense for electric and hybrid-electric aircraft, including advanced air mobility applications. The award supports development of technology intended to let autonomous aircraft “feel pain.”
SpaceX is partnering with more than 130 companies, including Apollo Global Management, Nvidia, Snowflake, Databricks and Bain, to deploy and improve its Grok AI systems. The network is intended to bolster business adoption of Grok, extending SpaceX’s AI efforts beyond its own products and operations.
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Europe’s €15.6 billion Iris2 constellation depends on shared public-private delivery, while ESA’s Space Rider prototype failed to deploy its parachute in a drop test. In parallel, ClearSpace won the UK’s first national active-debris-removal mission and agreed to work with Eutelsat on GEO life extension; Aerospacelab and KAI signed an MoU for South Korea’s K-LEO constellation.
Bengaluru-based OXG Space raised ₹17 crore in a round led by Aum Ventures’ India Innovation Fund II to build a satellite connectivity network in orbit. Separately, U.S. startup Atombeam raised $18.3 million to accelerate adoption of networking software for satellite, defense and commercial links, taking its total funding to $55 million.
Levo and Portside have launched a quoting capability for operators using Avianis. The AI-powered integration is intended to expedite the quoting process, though the announcement provides no details on pricing, availability or measured time savings.
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