This week’s stories come from the Netherlands, Australia and the USA
1-KLM plans liquid hydrogen plane takeoff in two years
KLM targets liquid hydrogen plane takeoff in two years. I saw this sustainability story at The Next Web and KLM, the Dutch national carrier, has cooperated with British-American startup ZeroAvia to develop a liquid hydrogen-powered turboprop aircraft. It could could transport 80 passengers over 1500 kilometres, according to the story.
“While a lot denser than hydrogen gas — and hence a much-better fuel for flight — liquid hydrogen only becomes liquid at extremely low temperatures. This means ZeroAvia has to develop expensive cryogenic tanks capable of storing the fuel below -252.87°C,” explained the story.
Henri Werij, head of aerospace engineering at TU Delft, liquid hydrogen-powered planes have the potential to travel up to 4,000 kilometres using current technology, told TNW. Let me note that hydrogen-electric engines use hydrogen in fuel cells to produce electricity. This powers electric motors that turn the aircraft’s propellers. The only emission is water vapor.
Having founded in 2017, ZeroAvia’s mission is to manufacture a hydrogen-electric, zero-emission powertrain in every aircraft. From 19-seat regional trips to over 100-seat long-distance flights, ZeroAvia enables scalable, sustainable aviation by replacing conventional engines with hydrogen-electric powertrains, as put by company’s LinkedIn profile. Tracxn, a market data and research platfor, revealed that ZeroAvia raised USD322 million at 13 rounds by July 9.
2-Canva acquires Leonardo.ai to boost generative AI capabilities
Canva, Australian graphic design platform, acquired Leonardo.AI to expand its generative AI capabilities. No financial terms of the deal have been disclosed. Leonardo.AI is active in generative AI and founded in 2022. The transaction is expected to boost Canva’s AI capabilities ahead of its IPO, possibly in 2025. Leonardo.AI raised $47 million of local Australian investment in Australia in December 2023, including investors such as Blackbird Ventures and Side Stage Ventures. Having launched in 2012, Canva has over 100 million users, while Leonardo.AI 19 million. It is thought that is enough to compete with huge names in generative AI such as Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall E. The company is founded by JJ Fiasson and TechCrunch claimed that there have been generated more than 700 million images by December 2023. (By the way I have a story here about Turkish AI startup ecosystem)
3-Intel lays off 15,000 employees
Intel announced laying off 15,000 employees as part of a new $10 billion cost savings plan. This equals 15% of the company’s total headcount, with 125,300 employees as of June 29th.
The company reported a loss of $1.6 billion in Q2 2024 and cost savings plan put into effect. “Our Q2 financial performance was disappointing, even as we hit key product and process technology milestones,” admits Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger in the company’s press release. “Second-half trends are more challenging than we previously expected, and we are leveraging our new operating model to take decisive actions that will improve operating and capital efficiencies while accelerating our IDM 2.0 transformation.”
