In recent years, venture capital (VC) investment formulas have undergone a radical transformation, fueled heavily by artificial intelligence (AI) and a renewed appetite for ambitious, high-risk engineering feats known as "moonshots"—ideas once dismissed as pure science fiction, ranging from massive orbital mirrors reflecting sunlight to brain-computer interfaces. Global investments in deep tech startups have surged dramatically, surpassing $150 billion (approx. 202 trillion KRW) since 2024 alone, a figure that already eclipses the entire $130 billion invested over the preceding decade leading up to the end of 2019.

Unlike the 2000s, which were dominated by software and digital-first businesses, current venture trends show a strong revival of interest in hardware-based startups. Industry leaders like Max Hodak, co-founder of the brain-computer interface startup Science, noted that hardware had long been neglected by investors, but that sector is now making a strong comeback.

The AI Catalyst and the Fall of Traditional Software

The primary driver behind this shift is AI’s ability to drastically reduce experimental and prototyping costs in fields like aerospace, nuclear fusion, and advanced hardware manufacturing. By leveraging AI simulations, engineers can test and redesign complex physical products digitally before entering the costly physical prototyping phase. As Karina Namy of the British VC firm Plural pointed out, the ability to simulate physical realities in computer environments has fundamentally altered the capital requirements needed to achieve profitability.

Furthermore, the venture landscape has been shaken by the "SaaSocalypse"—a massive downturn in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market valuations that wiped out approximately $1.6 trillion in market capitalization. Driven by growing concerns that advanced AI models could easily replicate or replace traditional software functionalities, investors who witnessed this software crash are finding high-risk hardware and deep-tech startups much less intimidating by comparison.

Harnessing Space: Generating Clean Power from Orbit

One of the most prominent manifestations of this moonshot trend is the rise of space-based energy startups aiming to solve terrestrial power crises. Companies such as Overview Energy and Reflect Orbital are pioneering methods to collect solar energy directly from space and transmit it to Earth. 

Orbital Mirrors and Beamed Power: Concepts include deploying giant mirrors into space orbits to reflect sunlight toward Earth-bound solar farms, or utilizing optical arrays to beam concentrated near-infrared "power beams" to ground receivers. 
Round-the-Clock Renewable Energy: These technologies aim to bypass weather constraints, allowing solar facilities to generate electricity even during cloudy days, late evenings, or nighttime hours to satisfy surging energy demands, particularly from power-hungry AI data centers. 
Experts like Dr. Ekblaw from the Aurelia Institute emphasize that plummeting rocket launch costs are actively lowering barriers to entry, unlocking entirely new industrial frontiers in space resource utilization.

SpaceX, FOMO, and the "Cambrian Explosion" of Space Startups

Despite the massive capital influx, deep-tech and moonshot investments inherently lack standard quantitative valuation metrics, leaving investors to rely heavily on empirical risk-taking to identify the next industry titan. Much of this urgency is propelled by FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) triggered by SpaceX's unprecedented success. Early backers, such as Founders Fund, turned a $600 million investment into tens of billions in equity value upon maturation, leaving sidelined investors eager to capture the next massive wave.

Driven by this compounding FOMO and falling infrastructure costs, analysts predict a "Cambrian Explosion" for space and deep-tech startups—a period characterized by an exponential proliferation of innovative ventures entering the market in a very short span of time.

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