[NYSE podcast] York Space CEO Dirk Wallinger on Scaling Satellites and the Next Space Race

Episode Description York Space Systems has spent 15 years industrializing satellite manufacturing, moving the industry from billion-dollar, decade-long builds to standardized platforms fielded in just seven months. Founder, President and CEO Dirk Wallinger goes inside the ICE House to discuss how proliferated constellations create resilience, why See all episodes In this episode, Steven Van Belleghem, Peter Hinssen and Pascal Coppens unpack Pascal's latest China tour —covering BYD's flash-charging infrastructure, Xiaomi's 91% automated factory, and the rise of humanoid robotics startup Galbot—before Steven shares his impressions from Taiwan and the world's dangerous dependency on its chip production. Peter then breaks down Block's headline-making decision to cut 4,000 jobs to become "smaller, faster, intelligence native," the mounting pressure on OpenAI as it kills Sora and pulls back from e-commerce, and Google's aggressive push into AI-powered shopping with its Universal Commerce Protocol. The episode closes with the explosive Anthropic vs. Pentagon confrontation, China's ambitious 15th Five-Year Plan, and why the next five years will be defined by quality over quantity, self-reliance, and the AI+ agenda. Apr 6 1 hr Dr. Craig Martell served as the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer for the DOD from June 2022 through April 2024. While at the Pentagon, he helped the Department of Defense modernize their approach to employing software. He now works as the Chief AI Officer for Cohesity, a cybersecurity startup that helps companies secure, analyze, and manage their data. In this episode of the Defense Tech Underground, we discuss Dr. Martell’s path from teaching computer science to leading a major Pentagon office, his early career in big tech at the dawn of AI, his concerns about the use of generative AI in warfare, and how tech startups can be effective by innovating alongside warfighters. This episode is hosted by Jeff Phaneuf and Andrew Paulmeno. Full Bio: Dr. Craig Martell is the former Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer for the United States Department of Defense. As Chief AI Officer of Cohesity, Craig shapes Cohesity’s technical vision—and defines and executes a strategic roadmap for the company’s future. Craig brings extensive industry and public sector experience and expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to his role. Most recently, as the first Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) for the U.S. Department of Defense, Craig accelerated the adoption of data, analytics, digital solutions, and AI functions. Prior to the DoD, he held senior roles at several leading technology companies. He served as Head of Machine Learning at Lyft, Head of Machine Intelligence at Dropbox, and was a leader of numerous AI teams and initiatives at LinkedIn. Craig was also a tenured computer science professor at the Naval Postgraduate School specializing in natural language processing. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. May 2, 2025 1 hr 7 min Defense is changing. Fast. For decades, weapons development was measured in years, sometimes decades. That model is being challenged. A new generation of defense-tech companies, backed by serious venture capital, is approaching the problem differently: Move fast. Build fast. Iterate fast. Mach Industries recently raised $300 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at $1.8 billion. But this is the number that caught my attention: 71 days. That’s how long it took Mach to take its Venom 3D-printed jet-powered unmanned aircraft from sketch to flight. Think about that. Just 71 days from an idea on paper to something flying through the air. This represents a much bigger shift taking place in defense: Asymmetric warfare. Low-cost. High-volume. Unmanned. Systems that can be developed quickly, manufactured at scale and deployed without the traditional timelines and economics of major weapons programs. But designing something quickly is one thing. Building thousands of them is another. Nathan Diller, President and CSO of Mach Industries, joins me on The Aerospace Executive Podcast to talk about what’s driving this transformation, how defense manufacturing has to change—and the enormous challenge of scaling this new generation of weapons systems. The defense industrial base is changing. And it’s happening quickly. What You’ll Discover In This Episode The near future arsenal of attack drones and munitions this defense tech startup is mass-producing for war Mach’s 4-part approach to building next gen unmanned platforms F-35 vs attack drones & where low-cost, high-volume wins on the battlefield Why PE and VC money is flowing to defense tech startups The pharma blueprint defense startups are following The surprising skillset his company can’t hire fast enough About the Guest Nathan Diller is the President and Chief Strategy Officer of Mach Industries. Nathan previously served as CEO of Divergent. Learn more at https://machindustries.com/ or connect with Nathan on LinkedIn. About Your Host Craig Picken is an Executive Recruiter, writer, speaker, and ICF Trained Executive Coach. He is focused on recruiting senior-level leadership, sales, and operations executives in the aviation and aerospace industry. His clients include premier OEMs, aircraft operators, leasing/financial organizations, and Maintenance/Repair/Overhaul (MRO) providers, and since 2008, he has personally concluded more than 400 executive-level searches in a variety of disciplines. Craig is the ONLY industry executive recruiter who has professionally flown airplanes, sold airplanes, and successfully run a P&L in the aviation industry. His professional career started with a passion for airplanes. After eight years’ experience as a decorated Naval Flight Officer – with more than 100 combat missions, 2,000 hours of flight time, and 325 aircraft carrier landings – Craig sought challenges in business aviation, where he spent more than 7 years in sales with both Gulfstream Aircraft and Bombardier Business Aircraft. Craig is also a sought-after industry speaker who has presented at Corporate Jet Investor, International Aviation Women’s Association, and SOCAL Aviation Association. Resources For more aerospace industry news & commentary: https://craigpicken.com/insights/. To learn more about Craig Picken, visit https://craigpicken.com/. Check out this episode on our website, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and don't forget to leave a review if you like what you heard. Your review feeds the algorithm, so our show reaches more people. Thank you! Sep 17 57 min 2 sec In this episode of Data Center Revolution, Kirk Offel sits down with Drew Baglino, founder and CEO of Heron Power and an 18-year Tesla engineering veteran, to examine the power architecture behind the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure.Drawing on his experience with power electronics, the Tesla Supercharger network, energy storage, and Megapack, Drew explores whether the industry’s greatest constraint is electricity generation—or the equipment required to move, convert, store, and reliably deliver that electricity.Kirk and Drew break down why 800-volt DC is gaining momentum, how increasing GPU density is changing rack-level power requirements, and how a simplified, modular architecture could remove traditional transformers, switchgear, distribution equipment, and standalone UPS systems. They also discuss safety, redundancy, liquid cooling, water use, capital costs, commissioning timelines, and Heron Power’s path from engineering prototypes to commercial deployment.For more about us: https://weareoverwatch.com/data-center-revolution-podcast/For guest inquiries reach out to: [email protected] Aug 6 1 hr 19 min Today's guest is Patrick Bowen, CEO of Neurophos.Patrick's path into chips started at age nine, when a neighbor taught him to build radios from Radio Shack kits and handed him a college EE textbook, which Patrick read cover to cover, homework included. He later double-majored in physics and EE, then did his PhD at Duke under David R. Smith, the physicist who built the first real invisibility cloak out of metamaterials. As Patrick puts it, "there's no market for cloaks." But the trick behind them, engineering materials smaller than the wavelength of light, became the seed for Neurophos. The company shrinks optical modulators 10,000x smaller than what's on the market, packing a million onto a fingernail-sized chip instead of one the size of a card table. That density powers Neurophos's T100 optical processing unit, which aims for 50x more compute per wafer. Neurophos closed a $110M Series A backed by Microsoft's M12 earlier this year. We're thrilled to have Patrick on the podcast for a conversation about the physics case for optical over digital compute, why he's targeting the prefill half of inference over decode, and what it will take to make photonics real at data center scale.Patrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ptbowen/The Compute 100 is led by Brian Schechter and Gaby Lorenzi, compute-focused investors at Primary. Primary is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm that backs founders building across markets including compute, industrials, healthcare and vertical AI. With $1.6B AUM and a 60+ person operating team, Primary delivers unparalleled support to teams across recruiting, finance, GTM, and brand. Primary's compute portfolio includes Etched, The Biological Computing Company, Haiqu, and Atero (acquired by Crusoe).Primary: https://www.primary.vc/Follow us on X (https://x.com/thecompute100) and check out our daily newsletter (https://newsletter.thecompute100.com/).This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Nothing discussed in this podcast constitutes investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice, or a recommendation to make any investment. Any views expressed are as of the date of recording, are subject to change, and may include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Aug 24 1 hr