California defense tech startup Mach Industries said Tuesday it raised $300 million, nearly quadrupling the company’s valuation to $1.8 billion within a year.

The Huntington Beach startup’s soaring valuation underscores how defense tech funding is booming as armed conflicts such as the Iran war and the Russian-Ukrainian war continue. Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital led Mach Industries’ Series C funding round.

“We’re delivering advanced unmanned systems at the pace the threat environment demands, and we’re grateful to our investors for believing in our ability to strengthen American and allied superiority on the battlefield,” Mach Industries Chief Executive Ethan Thornton said in a statement.

Thornton, 22, launched the Huntington Beach defense tech startup in 2023 after dropping out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied aerospace engineering.

The startup builds drones and other defense systems, developing products such as Viper, its vertical-takeoff strike vehicle; Glide, its high-altitude glider capable of launching weapons; and Stratos, its airborne satellite platform for surveillance.

Well-known venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures and Bedrock Capital have backed the defense tech startup.

The funding will help Mach Industries expand its manufacturing, advance its technology and deepen its partnerships with customers that include the U.S. Army and Air Force, according to a news release about the funding round. The startup has been growing its business, acquiring rocket-maker Exquadrum for $50 million in April.

As the Trump administration pushes to modernize and expand the U.S. military by partnering with major technology companies, some tech workers at companies such as Google, Amazon, Anthropic and OpenAI are raising concerns about the use of artificial intelligence in autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

Despite these worries, some of the world’s largest tech companies are increasing their work with the U.S. military. In April, eight technology companies, including Google, Nvidia and SpaceX, struck a deal with the Pentagon to strengthen the U.S. military and establish an “AI-first fighting force.”

The effort has also benefited defense tech startups and AI companies that work with the military. Southern California has been a hub for aerospace and defense tech companies, including Costa Mesa-based Anduril Industries, which reached a $61-billion valuation this year.

President Trump on Thursday said he will invoke Cold War-era emergency powers to direct a nearly $700-million investment into the waning coal industry, including construction of a new West Coast coal export terminal in Oakland.

Speaking from the White House, Trump said he will use the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that grants the president emergency authority over domestic industries deemed critical to national security, to construct a new export terminal on the West Coast for the first time to move supplies overseas. He also announced the upgrading of 13 existing coal plants across the country, the construction of two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia, and restarting a shuttered coal plant in Maryland.

“Today we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” Trump said. He was joined by U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency administration Lee Zeldin and other top officials.

Trump and his energy advisors have said coal power is a matter of national security because of rising energy costs, primarily from the growth of artificial intelligence data centers. He declared a national energy emergency on his first day back in office, which was aimed at boosting domestic fossil fuel production.

High energy costs have also become an issue for voters, with residential electricity bills increasing nearly 11% since Trump resumed office in January 2025, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The effort to establish a West Coast coal export terminal revives a fight that has played out repeatedly in recent years.

Beginning around 2010, the coal industry began pushing for new export sites in California, Oregon and Washington that would deliver coal from landlocked western states to energy-hungry markets in Asia. Those plans met fierce opposition from environmental groups and local communities concerned about climate impacts, coal dust, rail traffic and other potential downsides.

The plans were eventually abandoned, leaving the West Coast without a major U.S. coal export terminal — until now.

“Starting this summer, the West Gateway project will break ground and by summer 2028, over 12 million tons of clean beautiful coal per year will be shipped to countries all around the world,” Trump said.

While the administration leaned on coal as an energy cost solution, opponents said the move will actually increase soaring electricity prices — noting that renewables are generally cheaper than coal when it comes to new power generation in the U.S. A recent report from the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation found that 99% of all U.S. coal plants are now more expensive to run than replacement by new local solar, wind or energy storage.

“President Trump’s continued attempt to bail out the coal industry endangers public health and leaves Americans footing the bill for more expensive power,” said Shannon Baker-Branstetter, senior director for climate and energy policy at the Center for American Progress.

Baker-Branstetter noted that coal use has been declining for years due to market forces. At the same time, she said pouring taxpayer dollars into a new export facility “means there is no benefit at all to U.S. consumers, while the export terminals would burden communities next to the port with deadly soot pollution.”

The burning of coal is one of the largest drivers of air pollution, releasing fine particles known to be harmful to respiratory and cardiovascular health. At the same time, coal is a leading driver of human-caused climate change, responsible for about 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions from fuel combustion.

The move also follows the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to slow U.S. investment in renewable energy, particularly offshore wind power, electric vehicle initiatives and federal funding for solar projects.

“We wouldn’t have the buildings, the factories, the industry, the electricity grid we have today without the critical contribution of coal, the largest source of global electricity for 125 years in a row, and will be for decades to come,” said Wright, the U.S. Energy Secretary.

But investing in coal in 2026 is akin to “a taxpayer bailout to build new phone booths,” said Kit Kennedy, managing director for power at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council.

“The Trump administration’s claim that this has to do with national security is just another false pretext,” Kennedy said. “Instead of bailing out dirty energy, why don’t they end their attacks on cheap, plentiful wind and solar power? That’s the surest way to cut our bills and end our dependence on volatile global energy markets.”

Kennedy added that the latest action from the White House will result in higher bills and dirtier air for Americans.

“The best thing for the air, the climate and our utility bills is to let these plants retire peacefully,” she said.

Google took internet searches to the next level. Could it do the same for mosquito control?

The Silicon Valley-based tech giant is seeking to release up to 64 million sterilized male mosquitoes in California and Florida over two years, according to a notice in the Federal Register. It’s part of an ambitious effort to curb the diseases the insects spread.

Google says it can harness technology to optimize a concept that’s been around for decades, but hasn’t been successfully scaled with mosquitoes to rein in disease.

For example, the process often involves separating the insects by sex to isolate the males. Currently, that’s done manually and can be time consuming. Google says it’s “developing new technologies that combine sensors, algorithms and novel engineering to take advantage of unique aspects of mosquito biology to quickly and accurately sort males from females.”

The company also says it’s building software and monitoring tools to guide releases of sterile males, and its scientists and engineers are creating sensors, traps and software to decide which areas need to be treated and treated again.

Called Debug, the project targets Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are native to Africa but have infiltrated nearly half of California’s counties since first being detected in the state in 2013. Not only do they drive residents nuts with itchy bites, but they can carry a number of potentially serious diseases, including dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.

The plan is to infect males — which don’t bite — with a bacteria called Wolbachia, which effectively renders them sterile. They are then released to seek out wild females and mate. Females will lay eggs but these won’t hatch, which experts say drives down the population over time.

There are other methods to sterilize male mosquitoes. Vector control districts serving Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties have irradiated males and released them in recent years.

Early results are promising. Two neighborhoods treated by the Greater Los Angeles Vector Control District saw a more than 80% reduction in the female Aedes aegypti population in 2024 and 2025.

But as the Greater L.A. district seeks to expand its operations, cost poses a problem. Last year, business owners signaled they weren’t willing to shell out more every year to make it happen. District officials are still hoping to sway them.

If Google moves forward, it wouldn’t be the first time it has been involved in such an effort. In 2018, the company conducted a large-scale trial in Fresno County, releasing 14.4 million Wolbachia-infected males in three neighborhoods.

“At peak mosquito season, the number of female mosquitoes was 95.5% lower in release areas compared to non-release areas, with the most geographically isolated neighborhood reaching a 99% reduction,” a 2020 paper reported.

Google has applied for a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out the releases in California and Florida, for which the federal agency is currently seeking comments before deciding whether to grant approval.

The company aims to release up to 16 million Wolbachia-infected males in California, and the same in Florida, per year for two years, the Federal Register announcement said, for a total of 64 million.

Urgency to tamp down the invasive mosquito population in California has increased since 2023, when the state logged its first locally acquired dengue cases — meaning people were infected in their communities, not while traveling. The following year, the number of locally acquired cases ballooned to 18, with 14 of them in Los Angeles County.

A study published last week in “The Lancet Regional Health — Americas” found that approximately 18.2 million Californians — primarily in the Central Valley, L.A. and San Diego areas — live in regions where conditions are probably suitable for local dengue transmission.

“Under moderate scenarios of climate warming and urban expansion, an additional 4.1 million residents may be at risk by mid-century,” according to the study led by UC Berkeley’s Lisa Couper. Researchers note the current and future risk of transmission remains low except during summer in the Central Valley and Southern California.

“I’m pretty much in favor of whichever [sterile insect technique] approach gets us the disease prevention and nuisance control we need and at the lowest price,” Susanne Kluh, general manager of the Greater L.A. County Vector Control District, said in an email.

She said her district went with radiation because it was the only approved technique when they wanted to launch their pilot, and that it’s “also the only one where some company does not make a profit in the middle.” However, she wouldn’t rule out using Wolbachia if it turned out to be the most affordable option.