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UK aerospace and engineering group in early talks over commercial opportunities for planned technology

Rolls-Royce is in early-stage talks with potential commercial customers for its planned micro nuclear reactor, a technology it hopes will also provide power for space missions. 

Jake Thompson, director of novel nuclear and special projects at Rolls-Royce, said the company was exploring opportunities to deploy the reactor “across data centres, mining and remote communities”. 

Better known for its civil aircraft engines and for building the reactors that have propelled Royal Navy submarines for the past six decades, Rolls-Royce wants to capitalise on its nuclear expertise.

With global interest in small reactors growing quickly, the company believes there is a business case for micro reactors for both terrestrial and space applications. 

“Energy demands are set to increase rapidly — essentially the world will need everything that we can bring to bear,” said Thompson, who has been a nuclear engineer at the company for 18 years.

Compared with small modular reactors (SMRs) which are seeing demand from technology groups such as Google to deliver low-carbon electricity for data centres, micro nuclear reactors use different technologies and have a much smaller power output. Their compact size also makes them transportable.

For Rolls-Royce, the business is separate from the unit which is looking to build a fleet of SMRs, including in the UK. 

Rolls-Royce began work on the technology for a micro reactor three and a half years ago, joining forces with the UK Space Agency in 2021 to study how nuclear power could be used as part of space exploration.

The focus at Rolls-Royce, said Thompson, has been on how to make a reactor that is “really small, small enough so you could load it on to a rocket and send it into space”. 

Nuclear power is seen as an “essential enabler” in space exploration, said Thompson. “People want to do more things, have more things in space. All of that requires more energy. On the dark side of the moon, you can’t generate that energy through solar power.”

The space agency has invested £9.46mn in grant funding to date towards the demonstration of a lunar modular nuclear reactor, matched by funding from Rolls-Royce. 

The company said it will have a deployable reactor by the “early 2030s”. A big prize would be a contract with Nasa, whose Artemis programme aims to establish a human presence on the lunar surface by 2031.

“We believe once governments and the Artemis missions have re-established human presence on the moon, commercial services will follow that,” said Thompson, adding that “every operation on the moon will require power”. 

Nuclear power in space is not a new idea. The US spent considerable effort in the 1960s on an experimental reactor, Snap-10A, which was sent into orbit. It stopped working after 43 days but remains in polar orbit. Radioactive batteries have also powered numerous vehicles, including the Voyager spacecraft. 

The bet today by governments and companies is that advances in technology can offer something more powerful. Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, announced earlier this year it would build a lunar reactor with the China National Space Administration by 2035 to power a joint base on the moon. 

Rolls-Royce, as part of a separate initiative with the UK Space Agency, is also working with BWX Technologies of the US to look at different nuclear applications in space.

Other companies vying for a role in the burgeoning market include Lockheed Martin and Westinghouse. Both companies were selected by Nasa two years ago to develop design concepts for a reactor for use on the moon. 

At Rolls-Royce’s site in Bristol, the programme’s 100-strong team has been working on the concept development phase of the reactor, as well as on the manufacturing and testing of prototype components. 

Unlike conventional pressurised water reactors that are often used in large nuclear power plants and which Rolls-Royce plans to deploy for its SMR initiative, the micro reactor is a “high-temperature gas-cooled reactor”. In this design, gas instead of water is used as a coolant, allowing for much higher temperatures. 

The hot gas is then used to drive turbines that generate electricity. The company recently successfully tested an electrically-heated version of the process to demonstrate the hot gas driving a turbine to generate electricity. There is “not another facility in the world doing that kind of testing right now,” said Thompson. 

The reactor uses highly enriched uranium fuel. Made up of very small spheres of uranium, these are coated in protective layers of carbon and graphite to create “really strong and high-temperature resistant individual fuel particles,” said Thompson. 

One reactor core is expected to last about 10 years. On Earth, Rolls-Royce could re-fuel the reactor but is unlikely to do so in space. Thompson said it would work closely with the UK government on safe storage and disposal routes. 

The two variants will differ in size and power output. The terrestrial variant, with a power output of between 5MW-20MW, is expected to fit into a shipping container that could be deployed to remote industrial locations or military installations where access to fossil fuels or reliable renewable power is limited. 

The space reactor needs to be lightweight and just as durable. Nasa’s requirement is for a reactor to weigh 6,000kg or less. The concept is about the size of a family car and would produce “hundreds of kilowatts,” said Thompson. 

The company is mindful of the potential dangers. Thompson said the reactor would be designed so that it would only turn on when it gets to the lunar surface. During transit on the rocket the nuclear fuel inside would be inert.

Stephen Thomas, emeritus professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich, points out that while there is a “lot of ambitious talk about new nuclear designs . . . most of the applications have been talked about for 50 years, [from] ships to aircraft and now space stations”.

Commercial applications for remote sites, added Thompson, were “very limited . . . and whether micro reactors are the best way to meet the demands are very far from clear for me”.

Nick Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners, is similarly not convinced of the use of micro reactors for isolated communities, but believes there are opportunities in space, albeit a “bit of a niche market”. 

There are “two good uses for reactors — submarines and spacecraft,” he said. “They cannot be replaced for submarines . . . and they are really good for deep space probes and perhaps lunar stations if they are not in direct sunlight.”

Mike Lynch and Christopher Morvillo spent 12 years together fighting a legal battle over two continents. Their victory celebration ended in tragedy.

For Mike Lynch, June 6 was a day more than a decade in the making.

Standing in a courtroom in San Francisco, the British software mogul had just been found not guilty of defrauding Hewlett-Packard in the sale of his software company, Autonomy. It was a case that, for more than a year, had kept him shuffling around a townhouse wearing an ankle bracelet in a city 5,300 miles from home.

Nearby, Christopher J. Morvillo, the veteran corporate lawyer who helped lead Mr. Lynch’s legal team, also felt a huge wave of relief.

The two men had been joined at the hip for years to rebut HP’s accusations in the United States and Britain. One legal expert compared the proceedings in San Francisco to Enron’s in complexity, given the thousands of documents and accounting maneuvers at issue. An acquittal had seemed unlikely a year ago.

After leaving the courtroom, Mr. Lynch cut off his ankle bracelet. Mr. Morvillo turned to LinkedIn, writing his first-ever post to thank his colleagues and express his relief.

“And they all lived happily ever after ….” he wrote.

That happy ending didn’t last long.

Less than three months later, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Morvillo, both 59, died aboard the tech magnate’s family yacht, the Bayesian, when it foundered off the coast of Sicily. Five others died as well: Mr. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah; Mr. Morvillo’s wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, a prominent British insurance executive; Mr. Bloomer’s wife, Judy; and Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s cook.

And in a bizarre coincidence, Stephen Chamberlain, a financial executive at Autonomy who was Mr. Lynch’s co-defendant in San Francisco, was fatally struck in a hit-and-run in England days before.

Why the ship sank remains under investigation by Italian and British authorities. Numerous interviews with friends and associates, as well as public records, revealed what the men went through during their 12-year legal fight, and what they had planned after it ended.

An Adviser to the Prime Minister

Until recently, most Americans would probably not have recognized Mr. Lynch as a tech mogul. But in Britain, he had once been seen as a homegrown Bill Gates.

In 1996, Mr. Lynch founded Autonomy, a software company that analyzed messy reams of data like emails and online video for patterns that could help clients unearth hidden insights. By 2011, Autonomy had become one of Britain’s biggest international tech companies, establishing its base in Cambridge, England, as a start-up hub.

That raised Mr. Lynch’s profile as well, earning him royal honors; an adviser role to the prime minister at the time, David Cameron; and a seat on the board of the BBC.

His success was cemented when he sold Autonomy to HP for $11.1 billion in 2011, earning him hundreds of millions. But amid a revolt by HP shareholders and analysts about the size and wisdom of the deal, the tech giant took an $8.8 billion write-down the next year, a move that led some to declare the deal among the worst in corporate history, and accused Mr. Lynch of illegally hiding the true shape of Autonomy by inflating its sales.

It was then that Mr. Morvillo took notice of Autonomy’s problems.

The conflict seemed like a promising opportunity for the white-collar defense lawyer in the New York office of Clifford Chance, a huge international firm. Mr. Morvillo sent a note to a partner in Britain just before Thanksgiving in 2012. Was there an opening to represent either HP or Autonomy?

Fifteen minutes later, his colleague wrote back: When could he fly to London?

Mr. Morvillo flew over a few days later for what he thought was going to be a week’s work. He ended up spending years commuting between New York and London.

“It’s covered one-third of my career,” Mr. Morvillo said on the legal podcast “For the Defense With David Oscar Markus” in an episode that was published a week before the Bayesian sank. “It has been a constant presence in my life for the last 12 years.”

Mr. Lynch and Mr. Morvillo were a study in contrasts. The British executive was cool but intense, and known for a hard-charging leadership style that federal prosecutors later tried to make hay of. But the American lawyer was known for being a calm presence, largely eschewing over-the-top displays.

“He had a judgment and a steadiness that you need when you’re in a 12-year marathon,” Gary Lincenberg, who represented Mr. Chamberlain, said of Mr. Morvillo.

As the scope of HP’s allegations — that Autonomy executives had manipulated earnings, overstating revenue by backdating contracts and disguising low-margin hardware sales as higher-margin software ones — took shape, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Morvillo and an army of lawyers assembled a defense: Mr. Lynch had done nothing wrong, and HP was to blame for Autonomy’s woes.

A mathematician by training, Mr. Lynch often asked his legal team what the odds were for success. The next several years provided a disheartening picture.

In 2016, American prosecutors accused Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s chief financial officer, of fraud. Mr. Lynch and Mr. Chamberlain were hit with similar charges in 2018. The former Autonomy chief also faced civil fraud claims in London by a successor company to HP.

Mr. Hussain was convicted and sentenced to nearly six years in prison. The judge overseeing Mr. Lynch’s British trial found him liable.

The same day that Mr. Lynch lost his civil battle, the British government approved his extradition to the United States to stand trial on criminal charges.

Mr. Morvillo kept on the move, jetting to San Francisco to observe the Hussain trial and to London for Mr. Lynch’s civil trial. By one colleague’s estimate, he had made up to 100 flights over the years.

Once Mr. Lynch arrived in San Francisco in May 2023, he faced another surprise. The presiding judge ordered that he be placed under house arrest given his potential flight risk, as well as round-the-clock security on his dime. (The British entrepreneur later jokingly referred to the guards as his roommates.)

But Mr. Lynch stayed busy. His mornings were spent checking on his venture capital firm and on researchers in Cambridge, whose work on artificial intelligence and hearing loss he was funding. Then he turned to his legal defense, peppering Mr. Morvillo with questions.

For Mr. Morvillo, that meant a move to San Francisco, where he called a downtown hotel home for four months, away from his wife, Neda; his dog; and two grown children.

“Neda and Chris lived their lives as devoted, loving parents who always put their daughters and families first,” the Morvillo family said in a statement. “Their passing is a tremendous loss for our family and for the countless people who knew and loved them both.

The Defense Takes a Risk

Heading into court, his legal team worried that Mr. Lynch was likely to serve life in prison.

The trial was long and dry, with 42 witnesses who were asked about what could sometimes be thousands of pages of documents. Jurors fell asleep. Every Thursday night, the Lynch legal team regrouped at dinner, over bottles of Sea Smoke Cellars pinot wine, Mr. Morvillo’s preference.

Mr. Lynch and his lawyers increasingly believed that jurors might find the Autonomy chief hard-driving — but in a way similar to other visionary tech giants like Elon Musk or Bill Gates.

The team decided to take a risk: Mr. Lynch would take the stand as the last witness. Questioning him for the defense was Mr. Morvillo, who by now had a feel for how to direct his client in testimony. They spoke affably in front of the jury, including by comparing the discovery of Autonomy’s troubles to taking a microscope to a spotless kitchen.

“I think his testimony was pivotal at the end of the day and probably is what won the day for us,” Mr. Morvillo told the “For the Record” podcast.

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Waiting for the verdict was excruciating. In the courtroom on June 6, Mr. Lynch kissed his wife, Angela Bacares, on the forehead before sitting down next to his lawyers. Mr. Morvillo told him to take things one day at a time.

Minutes later, the jury began to deliver the first of 15 “not guilty” verdicts.

That night, Mr. Lynch hosted a party for his legal team and his co-defendant, Mr. Chamberlain, at The Third Floor restaurant at the Jay Hotel in downtown San Francisco. In an emotional toast, Mr. Morvillo said that working the trial had been one of the legal team’s life missions.

In his LinkedIn post, Mr. Morvillo thanked his wife and daughters for their support, adding, “I am so glad to be home.”

Mr. Lynch flew back to Britain with big dreams. He wanted to refocus on investing and advocating Britain’s technology industry.

Another priority was figuring out how to revamp an extradition treaty that he believed had unfairly sent him to the United States in chains. The day of his acquittal, he texted David Davis, a prominent British lawmaker who had protested the extradition.

Back home — over what Mr. Davis described as a “moderately alcoholic lunch” at Wiltons, a high-end restaurant in West London — the two men discussed Mr. Lynch’s increased compassion for the wrongfully convicted, spurred by his own legal battles.

Mr. Lynch still had other legal business. He was waiting to hear how much he had to pay in damages in the British civil fraud case brought by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a successor to HP, which said he owed up to $4 billion. (Hewlett Packard Enterprise said last month that it was still pursuing damages against Mr. Lynch’s estate.)

But first and foremost, Mr. Lynch wanted to do … nothing.

He returned to Loudham Hall, his sprawling 16th-century estate in Suffolk, England, where he raised Red Poll cattle and other livestock, and held a garden party for friends to celebrate.

A Final Voyage

And then there was the Bayesian, the 184-foot superyacht that his family owned. Mr. Lynch had looked forward to cruising on the vessel — named after a theorem for statistical analysis — as a way to unplug and celebrate. Within weeks of acquittal, he asked his legal team to accompany him for several planned voyages.

Mr. Morvillo and his wife joined Mr. Lynch on the yacht in Italy — with plans to fly to Greece afterward to meet their daughters, the Morvillo family said in a statement.

Afterward, the statement added, Mr. Morvillo intended to continue working “because he recognized that he had reached a new level in his career and knew, deservedly so, he would be highly sought after.”

During the voyage, the yacht sliced through the waters off the Italian coastline, from Amalfi to the Eolian Sea, before ending up off Sicily. By Aug. 17, the trip was near its end: Mr. Lynch was preparing to return to London, where he was set to have a second lunch with Mr. Davis, the British lawmaker.

But bad news broke on Aug. 18: Mr. Chamberlain had been fatally hit by a car back home in England. Devastated, Mr. Morvillo messaged the Lynch team, telling one colleague to kiss his wife and children.

The next day, the Bayesian sank, and both Mr. Lynch and Mr. Morvillo were dead.

JiYue, a Chinese EV brand focused on delivering all-electric “robocars” to the masses, has unveiled its latest model, and it’s quite a deviation from its previous EVs—but in the best way. Earlier today, JiYue launched the ROBO X supercar, designed for high-speed racing. By high speed, we mean 0-100 km/h acceleration in under 1.9 seconds. My mouth is watering.

JiYue has only existed since 2021, when parent tech company Baidu announced it was expanding from software development into physical EV production, joining forces with multinational automotive manufacturer Geely.

The new “robotic EV” marque initially launched as JIDU with $300 million in startup capital before garnering an additional $400 million in Series A funding, led by Baidu, in January 2022.

In August 2023, Geely took on a larger role in JIDU alongside a greater financial stake as the brand reimagined itself as JiYue, inheriting the JIDU logo and its flagship model, the 01 ROBOCAR.

In December 2023, Baidu and Geely unveiled a second model called the JiYue 07. It was born from JIDU’s ROBO-02 concept, which debuted in 2023 and was designed to compete against the Tesla Model 3 in China.

The 07 finally launched in China earlier this year with 545 miles of range. With an all-electric SUV and sedan on the market, JiYue has unveiled an exciting new entry in the form of a performance supercar called the ROBO X. Check it out:

JiYue’s new ROBO X EV is available for pre-order now

JiYue showcased its new ROBO X hypercar in front of the crowd at the 2024 Guangzhou Auto Show earlier today. Similar to previous models but with a unique spin, JiYue described the ROBO X as an AI smart-driving supercar that, for the first time, blends artificial intelligence and autonomous driving into a high-performance, race-ready EV.

When we say “high performance,” we mean a quad motor liquid-cooled drive system that can propel the ROBO X from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in under 1.9 seconds. JiYue called the new ROBO X a “performance beast” with “the perfect balance of excellent aerodynamic performance and high downforce.” JiYue CEO Joe Xia was even bolder in his statements about the ROBO X:

For the next 20 years, the design of supercars will bear the shadow of Robo X. This is the best design in the history of Chinese automobiles today, and it is a landmark presence.

Fighter-style airflow ducts bolster the EV’s aerodynamics, efficiency, and overall posture. Per JiYue, the two-seater ROBO X is expected to deliver a maximum range of over 650 km (404 miles).

The new supercar features falcon-wing doors, a carbon fiber integrated frame, and a professional racing HALO safety system offering 360° of support. The interior features an AI smart cockpit with SIMO real-time feedback to give drivers an immersive racing experience.

Furthermore, JiYue said the vehicle will utilize parent company Baidu’s Apollo self-driving technology, which could make it the first electric supercar to apply pure-vision ADAS technology that enables track-level autonomous driving.

Following today’s unveiling of the ROBO X, JiYue has officially opened up pre-orders in China for RMB 49,999 ($6,915). That said, reservation holders will need to be patient as JiYue shared that it doesn’t expect to begin mass production of the ROBO X until 2027.

What do you think? Will people be talking about the ROBO X for the next 20 years?

Biden allows Ukraine to strike Russia with US-made long-range missiles

Outgoing president makes big policy shift after North Korean soldiers are deployed in the war

US President Joe Biden has authorised Ukraine to launch limited strikes into Russia using US-made long-range missiles, in a big policy shift before the end of his White House term in January, two people familiar with the decision said.

The move by Biden comes in response to the deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, and after a barrage of new strikes by Moscow on Ukrainian cities at the weekend.

Tuesday will mark the 1,000th day of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The US-made long-range missiles are likely to be first used by Ukraine to target Russian and North Korean forces in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized territory during the summer, according to people familiar with the matter.

Biden has allowed Ukraine to use HIMARS — the American High Mobility Artillery Rocket System — to strike targets inside Russia.

But he has long resisted authorising Kyiv to launch strikes within Russia using US-made long-range missiles known as the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, on the grounds that it could escalate tensions with Moscow. ATACMS missiles have a range of up to 300 kilometres, or 190 miles.

He is now dropping those objections more than two months before he leaves office to make way for Donald Trump.

The Republican is sceptical of additional military aid to Ukraine and has vowed to bring a swift end to the war — without saying how exactly he would do it.

The White House declined to comment. The Pentagon declined to respond to a request for comment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday noted media reports “talking about the fact that we have received permission” to use American ATACMS missiles inside Russia, although he did not confirm Biden’s decision.

Zelenskyy has pleaded for months for the US and other partner countries to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western-made, long-range weapons inside Russia.

He has argued that cross-border strikes with the American ATACMS, British Storm Shadow and French Scalp missiles were necessary to hit Moscow’s forces before they could launch new attacks on Ukrainian targets, including critical infrastructure.

“Two countries are against us, against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said on Friday, referring to Russia and North Korea. “We would very much like to be granted the ability to use long-range weapons against military targets on Russia’s territory.”

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defence minister, said the use of ATACMS missiles would allow Kyiv to set its sights on “high value targets” and “potentially disrupt Russian operations”.

“There are targets which can only be addressed by high payload missiles such as ATACMS or equivalent aerial missiles. This is, of course, a decision giving Ukraine troops a chance, though as with many previous decisions coming after a significant and extremely painful delay.”

Biden’s decision to allow the Ukrainians to use ATACMS missiles followed the deployment early last month of 12,000 North Korean troops to Russia.

This was the first foray into the war by a foreign military and a major expansion of North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pyongyang had previously provided Moscow with hundreds of ballistic missiles and millions of artillery shells. In exchange, Moscow has provided Pyongyang with military technologies to help with its missile programmes and money, a senior Ukrainian official said.

In recent weeks, Russia has massed some 50,000 troops, including 10,000 North Korean soldiers, ahead of an anticipated offensive in its Kursk region to retake about 600 sq km of territory held by Ukrainian forces since their incursion in August.

A Ukrainian intelligence assessment shared with the Financial Times revealed that North Korea has supplied Russia with long-range rocket and artillery weapons, including 50 domestically made 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20 updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems.

Some of these weapons have been moved to the Kursk region for the planned assault involving North Korean troops.

“Even if limited to the Kursk region, ATACMS missiles put at risk high value Russian systems, assembly areas, logistics, command and control,” said Michael Kofman, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a US think-tank.

“They may enable Ukraine to hold on to Kursk for longer and raise the costs to North Korea for its involvement in the war.”

Bill Taylor, former US ambassador to Ukraine, said Biden’s decision makes “Ukraine stronger and increases the odds of a just end to the war”.

“The decision may also unlock British and French missiles. Possibly even German,” he added.

Russia has not yet responded Biden’s decision. In September, President Vladimir Putin suggested Ukrainian use of western-made missiles against Russian targets would mean “the direct involvement of Nato countries, the US, and the EU . . . It would mean they are at war with Russia — and if that’s the case, we will make the corresponding decisions.”

Russian military bloggers close to the Kremlin responded on Telegram with fury and frustration to Biden’s decision.

Rybar, a channel with more than 1.3mn subscribers, said the threat of ATACMS missiles would force Russian command and control centres, air defences and airfields further from the front lines. 

When asked about the escalatory risk from Biden’s policy shift, António Guterres, UN secretary-general, told reporters at the G20 in Rio de Janeiro: “We have a very consistent position regarding escalation in the Ukrainian war. We want peace . . . in line with the UN charter and international law.”

Si Airbus est l’exemple parfait de coopération industrielle européenne réussie, il est resté le seul exemple de ce type, à l’exception du missilier MBDA. L’Europe a même vu s’accentuer les replis nationaux depuis quelques années.

C’est devenu une tarte à la crème du discours public. De ces mantras dégainés à l’envi quand il s’agit, pour l’industrie européenne ou les politiques du Vieux Continent, de montrer les muscles face aux Etats-Unis ou à la Chine. Une alliance dans les batteries de voitures électriques ? La voilà labellisée « Airbus des batteries ». Un projet de fusion Alstom-Siemens dans les trains, finalement abandonné pour une alliance Alstom-Bombardier ? On exalte un « Airbus du ferroviaire ». Des pénuries et dépendances dans la santé ? D’aucuns invoquent un hypothétique « Airbus du médicament ».

Pourtant, le succès d’Airbus, leader mondial incontesté de l’aéronautique, est un exemple unique de coopération industrielle réussie. Et pour cause : un partenariat de cette ambition nécessite un alignement de planètes extrêmement complexe. Il a d’abord fallu, au début des années 1970, une volonté politique forte, de la France, de l’Allemagne, de l’Espagne et du Royaume-Uni de rapprocher leurs champions nationaux (Aerospatiale, Messerschmitt, Casa, BAE). « Je dis souvent que si l’on avait encore aujourd’hui un constructeur d’avions français, un constructeur d’avions allemand, un constructeur d’avions espagnol et un constructeur d’avions anglais, aucun n’aurait la taille suffisante pour investir et pour innover – en bref : nous n’existerions plus », expliquait le patron d’Airbus Guillaume Faury le 29 octobre dans la revue Le Grand Continent.

« Airbus n’a réellement été mature qu’à partir de 2010 »

Mais le politique ne suffit pas. Pour conquérir, de haute lutte, le leadership mondial, Airbus a aussi pu compter sur des industriels qui ont transformé une vision en succès commercial : trois ingénieurs visionnaires, Henri Ziegler, Felix Kracht et Roger Béteille, les « trois mousquetaires d’Airbus », à l’origine de l’A300 et du découpage des charges industrielles entre pays ; un patron charismatique au verbe aussi haut que son ambition, Jean Pierson, qui a lancé le programme A320 au mitan des années 1980, puis les long-courriers A330 et A340.

La montée en puissance d’Airbus ne s’est pas faite sans heurts : règlements de comptes franco-allemands (Tom Enders-Christian Streiff) et même franco-français (Noël Forgeard-Philippe Camus) ; développement cauchemardesque de l’A380 et de l’A400M ; difficultés d’intégration du groupe, chaque pays veillant scrupuleusement au respect de ses intérêts.

« Créé en 1970, Airbus n’a réellement été mature qu’à partir de 2010 », résume Marwan Lahoud, ancien numéro deux de l’avionneur. C’est à ce moment que le champion réussit deux coups fumants, avec le lancement de l’A320neo, le best-seller ultime du groupe, et le rachat de la gamme d’avions CSeries au canadien Bombardier.

Ce modèle est-il reproductible ? Force est de constater que seul le missilier MBDA a réussi à suivre la voie d’Airbus. Détenu par l’avionneur européen (37,5 %), le britannique BAE (37,5 %) et l’italien Leonardo (25 %), le groupe s’est imposé dans le Top-3 mondial des missiles.

L’industriel, constitué par fusions successives de 1996 à 2006 (Matra, BAE, Alenia Marconi, LFK), surfe aujourd’hui sur un carnet de commandes de 22,3 milliards d’euros, et embauche en moyenne 2 000 nouveaux salariés par an. « MBDA est une entité qui est à la fois au cœur de la souveraineté dans chacun de ses pays, jusqu’à la dissuasion nucléaire en France, et en même temps vraiment plurinationale, expliquait le PDG du groupe, Eric Béranger, dans une interview à Challenges. C’est un équilibre de tous les jours, qui demande de l’attention et un management très particulier, mais ça fonctionne. »

Depuis le milieu des années 2000, aucun champion européen n’a vraiment réussi à émerger. Le groupe KNDS, « Airbus des blindés » issu de la fusion en 2015 du français Nexter et de l’allemand KMW, n’est pas vraiment un groupe intégré, les filiales françaises et allemandes restant distinctes et parfois concurrentes.

« Pour faire un leader mondial, il faut en avoir envie : chez Airbus, depuis les années 1970, le mot d’ordre a toujours été « beat Boeing », souligne Marwan Lahoud. Or, depuis des années, on voit plutôt des replis nationaux dans les pays européens, avec une volonté d’être meilleur que le voisin, plutôt que la volonté de battre les acteurs américains ou chinois. »

Le premier mandat de Donald Trump, après quelques espoirs initiaux, n’avait pas vraiment permis de relancer la machine. Son retour à la Maison-Blanche peut-il être le déclic attendu ? « Soit on travaille ensemble, soit on meurt », prévenait Guillaume Faury au Grand Continent. On ne saurait mieux dire.

Only two companies currently provide cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station, and both are based in the United States. The Exploration Company, which operates out of Germany, France, and Italy, is looking to change that: It just closed a large funding round to further its mission of building Europe’s first reusable space capsule.

The $160 million Series B round will fund the continued development of the Nyx spacecraft, which will be capable of carrying 3,000 kilograms of cargo to and from Earth. The company, which was founded three years ago by aerospace engineers Hélène Huby, Sebastien Reichstat, and Pierre Vine, is aiming to conduct Nyx’s maiden flight to and from the ISS in 2028.

“We are the first company in the world where this is for the first time mainly funded by private investors,” Huby said in a recent interview. This is in contrast to SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which she said was “mainly funded by NASA.”

The new funding, which was led by Balderton Capital and Plural, brings the startup’s total funding to date to over $208 million. The Series B also included participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, NGP Capital, and two sovereign European funds, French Tech Souveraineté and DeepTech & Climate Fonds.

“We’ve been able to deliver on promises in the past three years,” Huby said. “We’ve been able to meet our cash target ever quarter … The investors, they could see that we basically can deliver on time, on cost, on quality.”

The startup has made traction with the European Space Agency (ESA), which has recognized the need to foster native space launch and transportation capabilities. The Exploration Company was awarded a study contract worth around €25 million ($27 million) to develop cargo return services earlier this year. That contract will run through 2026, with additional competitive contract opportunities expected to follow. ESA’s aim is to have at least one capsule launching to the ISS in 2028.

The structure of the contract, called the LEO Cargo Return Service Contract, resembles NASA’s Commercial Orbital Return Transportation Services program that the agency launched in 2006. That program resulted in multibillion-dollar transportation contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation (now Northrop Grumman).

It’s a promising start, but equally promising is the traction The Exploration Company is seeing on the commercial side. Around 90% of the startup’s $770 million contract backlog has come from private station developers Vast, Axiom Space, and Starlab, according to recent reporting.

The Exploration Company’s first demonstrator vehicle launched on the maiden flight of Ariane 6 this summer, though it was not deployed due to an issue with the rocket’s upper stage. The second sub-scale demonstrator mission, called Mission Possible, is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 next year.

“I highly respect what SpaceX has been able to achieve,” Huby said. “We are trying to learn as much as possible from that, we are inspired by what they have achieved. But we also believe the world needs more competition and we want, step by step, to build an alternative. We are very aware that we are late, that we are much smaller, etcetera, but we need to start.”

Makers of Ozempic, Zepbound fight to stop compounded copies of their drugs; unclear whether pharmaceutical companies can increase production enough

Pharmaceutical companies are typically rewarded for their innovation with years of market exclusivity before cheaper generics enter the scene. But for diabetes and obesity drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound, known as GLP-1s, cheaper copycats emerged almost immediately.

This is due to a provision that permits drug compounders to produce copies during periods of shortage. For GLP-1s, supply constraints have persisted ever since Wegovy’s approval for obesity in 2021, giving rise to a booming market for compounders.

That window for mass drug compounding, however, could start to close if the FDA upholds its recent determination that tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s LLY -4.93%decrease; red down pointing triangle Zepbound and Mounjaro, is no longer in short supply. Although the FDA declared the shortage resolved a month ago, it is currently reassessing its decision after facing a lawsuit from a compounding trade group. An update is expected on Thursday. It is possible the FDA could reverse its decision or give compounders more time. The nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services, which has jurisdiction of the FDA, adds some uncertainty to what might happen under the Trump administration, given Kennedy’s skepticism of big pharma and GLP-1s in particular.

Nonetheless, the days of mass compounding appear to be waning. Notably, the FDA also has recently listed Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide—the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—as available on its website, though it hasn’t formally declared the shortage to be over.

If the FDA moves to restrict mass compounding, it could spell trouble for telehealth companies like Hims & Hers Health and Ro, while providing a boost in demand for Lilly and Novo.

Although Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks played down the impact of compounding on its sales on a recent earnings call, the potential upside could be significant. Conservative estimates indicate that hundreds of thousands of patients are currently turning to compounders for access to these medications. Many patients prefer to go this route because insurance coverage of GLP-1 drugs for obesity isn’t yet widespread and the compounded drugs are cheaper.

The bigger question is whether the manufacturers are equipped to meet heightened demand without falling back into shortages within a few months. Eli Lilly is planning to further fuel demand with new consumer-focused advertising in the coming weeks. UBS analyst Jo Walton captured the concern during Novo’s earnings call last month, noting that demand next year could surge as Novo and Lilly ramp up advertising while compounders potentially exit. “Should we be concerned that it’ll be only another three months before you’re back into telling us that you’re in short supply?” Walton said.

A spokeswoman for Eli Lilly said in an email that “all doses of Mounjaro and Zepbound have been available since August, and Lilly’s current and projected supply for both medicines exceed the current and projected national demand.” She added that the “projections include our forecast for increased demand for genuine Lilly medicines.”

Lilly’s spokeswoman points out that the company is broadening access and affordability by offering Zepbound single-dose vials through a self-pay option on the company’s website, LillyDirect. Novo points to the FDA website saying all doses of Ozempic and Wegovy are available, while noting that the company will continue to give priority to continuity of care for patients.

The sharp divergence between demand and supply of GLP-1s is nearly unprecedented in modern pharmaceutical history in terms of its scale and its persistence. “This is a phenomenon like nothing we’ve seen since the advent of birth control,” says Scott Brunner, CEO of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding. “It’s even bigger than the HIV drugs in the 1990s or Viagra.”

The compounders argue that their cheaper medications are safe and that they aren’t actually competing with Lilly and Novo, given what they say is a persisting supply problem. Compounders fill a critical role during shortages of crucial medicines or when specific formulations aren’t available through the normal channels. But some businesses working with compounders aren’t just filling in medical-supply gaps, they are stoking demand, too: Companies like Hims and Ro, famous for selling drugs for hair growth and erectile dysfunction, are now aggressively marketing GLP-1s.

Lilly and Novo are fighting to end compounding, publicly arguing it is about protecting patient health.

“Patients shouldn’t be exposed to risky, unapproved knockoff products, especially when safe and effective, FDA-approved tirzepatide medications are available,” a Lilly spokeswoman said in an email. But, reading between the lines, it is also a business problem. The manufacturers are spending tens of billions of dollars to do the heavy lifting of building out this market, from expanding supply to securing insurance coverage to conducting expensive clinical trials. Meanwhile, bulk compounders are eating into their potential market share and risking a public-relations nightmare if a batch goes bad.

Lilly’s determination to prepare for a world without mass compounding may even explain why its GLP-1 sales underperformed last quarter, according to Will Sevush, a healthcare specialist at Jefferies. He speculates that Lilly might have decided to stockpile supply and hold off on consumer advertising to ensure they could adequately supply excess demand expected to be created once the FDA removes GLP-1s from the shortage list.

“I think what we’ve done is sort of move our set point of how much stock we want to have on hand before we go initiate demand-stimulating activities, which we had more or less paused for Mounjaro in the first half and never started for Zepbound,” Lilly’s Ricks told analysts during the earnings call.

The FDA is clearly concerned, too, and it wants to curb mass compounding. But it can’t act without officially declaring the shortages over, something it is now trying to do with Lilly’s tirzepatide. The problem is that what constitutes an end to the shortage remains murky. In making its decision, the FDA relies on information provided by the manufacturers. In October, the FDA announced that Lilly had finally produced enough tirzepatide to meet soaring demand. But compounders have disputed whether the shortage is over, and the FDA’s own drug-shortage website acknowledges that even when a drug is technically available, patients may still face delays due to factors like supply-chain logistics and retailer practices.

It could be a matter of months, but Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk may soon get what they want. They better be ready to handle it.