Weekly Dose of Optimism #199
Brief
Packy McCormick’s Weekly Dose of Optimism #199 (June 26, 2026) surveys big, concrete bets across biotech, energy, housing and archival science. Stripe’s new $500M Intercept initiative (with Anthropic, OpenAI Foundation, Flu Lab and Jane Street backers) targets broad‑spectrum preventatives and air‑cleaning tech to reduce respiratory disease that costs ~$600B/year and kills ~1M people/year. Congress passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 358–32 to speed and subsidize housing construction, though President Trump has conditioned his signature on unrelated legislation. DOE’s Loan Programs Office conditionally committed $17.5B to enable ten Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, with a financing model that requires $1B equity per project upfront and $3.5B in early DOE loans to buy long‑lead components. In neurotech, Aleph Neuro used contrast microbubbles, ultrafast ultrasound and computational fusion of thousands of frames to produce record extracranial 3D brain images. Analogue Group’s Revival Fund began translating neglected Soviet research (Seconds’ SovietRxiv) while Longshot Space raised $20M.
Why it matters
Stripe announced Intercept, a $500M philanthropic initiative (backed by Stripe, Anthropic, The OpenAI Foundation, Flu Lab and people from Jane Street) to pursue broad‑spectrum preventatives and air‑cleaning tech against respiratory infections that reportedly cost $600B/year, kill ~1M people/year, and keep people sick ~5% of their lives.
Key details
- The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 358–32 (June 2026), loosening federal regulations, easing lending, rewarding communities that build, limiting institutional investor roles, and providing disaster aid; President Trump has so far refused to sign unless his SAVE America Act is passed, though leadership says the bill is being sent to the White House and the margin is veto‑proof.
- DOE’s Loan Programs Office conditionally committed $17.5B to support construction of ten Westinghouse AP1000 reactors (1GW class); financing structure: EDF will support up to five loans (two reactors each), project partners must commit $500M each ($1B total) equity upfront, and once equity is committed DOE will provide $3.5B in early low‑cost loans to buy long‑lead items; Westinghouse has LOIs with seven potential partners.
- Aleph Neuro reported the highest‑resolution extracranial 3D brain images by injecting contrast microbubbles, firing ultrafast ultrasound through the skull, tracking individual bubbles in vessels, and computationally combining thousands of frames into a super‑resolution 3D map — the founders (Marley and Lev) acted as subjects.
- Analogue Group’s Revival Fund launched an inaugural cohort to restore neglected research (projects include translating Soviet-era papers via Seconds’ SovietRxiv); separately, Longshot Space (Mike Grace) announced a $20M raise, illustrating funders’ interest in mining historical research for new tech ideas.