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The week that was

Deals of the week

Temperature check

Number of the week: 32%

Parting shot: Commitment

The Silverado EV delivers everything you could want from a full-size electric pickup: nearly 500 miles of max range, plush features and a competitive (if upmarket) price.

Plus, it matches or exceeds Ford's F-150 Lightning in almost every way, including price

Yes, but: Americans aren't springing for either truck.

The big picture: The Silverado EV arrived later and with less flash than its direct competitor, the F-150 Lightning.

It drives farther, has a comparable interior, and even features a front-cargo "frunk" just like the Lightning. 

By the numbers: Just 2% of Silverado buyers — 3,672 people — bought the electric model through the first six months of 2026.

Ford sold roughly the same number of F-150 Lightnings during the same period. 

Zoom in: The reasons are murky and mostly anecdotal: run-of-the-mill range anxiety; more specific worry about how towing and hauling drain the battery; distaste for the Silverado EV's slightly rounder, more aerodynamic styling.

✈️ Exclusive: Astro Mechanica is finalizing an agreement to buy jet engines from United Airlines to convert into onsite power sources. Go deeper

🦣 Scoop: Colossal, the startup with plans to re-create the woolly mammoth, has spoken to investors in recent weeks about raising at a roughly $23 billion to $24 billion valuation. Go deeper

🛥️ Exclusive: Vessev, a New Zealand startup making electric hydrofoil boats, raised a $19 million Series A and is bringing its vessels to the U.S. Go deeper

⚛️ Scoop: Fusion energy developer Shine Technologies is preparing to imminently file for an IPO, with Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan as bookrunners. Go deeper

⚡️ SB Energy's big power deal with OpenAI underscores how energy developers are capitalizing on the AI bonanza. Go deeper

💰Scoop: Geothermal power XGS Energy plans to begin raising $300 million in private funding in September. Go deeper

💵 Scoop: Data center developer Crusoe is in IPO talks with at least four Wall Street banks. Go deeper

1 big thing: The week that was

Dark gray pickup truck with black wheels parked on a suburban street. Behind it, a white PODS moving & storage shed among tall trees, with a utility pole and wires under a blue sky.

Chevy's Silverado EV is pitched as a rugged work truck, but its giant driving range makes it America's first all-electric family ride for road trips.  Photos: Alan Neuhauser

👉 GO HERE TO CATCH UP on deals this week. 

• Also, a micromobility company spun out of Rivian last year, raised $150m in Series D funding. Prysm Capital led, joined by Eclipse, Greenoaks, and MVP Ventures. Go deeper

• Apollo Atomics, an MIT spinoff building next-gen pressurized water reactors, raised $31m in seed financing, led by FCVC and joined by YC, Telesoft Partners, Alumni Ventures, Robinhood Ventures, Nucleation Capital, Pelion VC, and Duke Capital Partners. Go deeper

• Ampaire, a Long Beach, Calif.-based developer of hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion systems, raised $19m in Series B funding. DiamondStream Partners led, joined by Alaska Airlines and International Airlines Group. Go deeper

2. Deals of the week

Illustration of an electric plug and socket surrounded by lightning bolts and the words "Energy and climate deals round up"

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

🔌 No more anxiety: Our colleague Joann Muller borrowed Rivian's new R2 electric SUV for a road trip from Michigan to Wisconsin and back — and recharging was the best part, she reports.

With Tesla's NACS plug built into the Rivian and plenty of Tesla Superchargers available along the way, charging increasingly felt like infrastructure rather than an obstacle. 

🥵 Hot nights: Warmer evenings are preventing electrical equipment from cooling overnight, further straining grids as temperatures keep climbing from climate change, Axios' Rebecca Falconer writes.

The problem is particularly acute for local distribution systems, including transformers, says Rob Gramlich, president of consulting firm Grid Strategies. 

💰 Big bucks for tiny reactors: Venture funding for startups commercializing micro-reactors has edged past funding for (slightly larger) small modular reactors, Ben Geman reports in Future of Energy.

Big micro-reactor rounds this year so far include Valar Atomics' $1 billion Series B round and Antares' $470 million Series C. Avalanche Energy meanwhile hired Jefferies earlier this year for a planned IPO.

Definitions vary, but micro-reactors generate up to 20 MW of power, while SMRs are in the 75-350 MW range.

📉 BlocPowering down: Building electrification startup BlocPower is shutting down and liquidating its assets, according to a letter sent to investors on Tuesday, reports Latitude Media.

It's a shift from last month, when Latitude reported that the company told investors it was looking at a sale of its software and IP, and potentially restructuring its debt.

3. Temperature check

Illustration of a thermometer shaped like a smoke stack with smoke spewing out.

U.S. electricity demand is on pace to swell by nearly a third by 2030, per a report this week from UH Energy at the University of Houston.

Threat level: "It could be even higher, as the continued improvement in chip technology so far has increased computing intensity rather than reducing energy consumption," the white paper says. 

"Or it could be lower if the more limited availability of capital means a handful of massive technology companies are the only entities that can afford to make these investments."

What we're watching: The least-glitzy technologies are best positioned to solve the challenge, the authors contend.

These include transmission and distribution upgrades, improved grid management systems, and flexible assets like virtual power plants and batteries.

4. Number of the week: 32%

Sure, a vesting schedule is nice, but have you considered a tattoo of your startup's core technology?

Driving the news: Joe Paluska, chief marketing officer of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, last month had a design of the fusion developer's SPARC tokamak machine inked on his arm. 

What they're saying: "Probably midlife crisis," Paluska joked in a call with Axios Pro.

"We had these temporary tattoos that were similar, and they looked really cool, and I liked it, and I just thought, 'Why don't I just get a real one?'"

Zoom in: The art took about five hours, at Seventh Son Tattoos in San Francisco.

5. Parting shot: Commitment

Two-panel image: left shows a smiling man in a black t-shirt with the Commonwealth Fusion Systems logo, outdoors among trees; right is a close-up of his upper-arm tattoo, a large circular gear design.

"My wife was in Europe at the time, so she asked my 19-year-old daughter, Margot, to go with me to make sure I didn't f*** it up," Paluska says. Photo: Courtesy of Commonwealth Fusion Systems

August 22, 2026

1 big thing: The week that was