Warhound: The dogs of war
Occasionally there is a corporate announcement that makes you reach for the calendar and check that it’s not April 1, but the $200m that Warhound has raised at a valuation of $1.2bn from players like Sequoia Capital suggests that it is far from a joke. Co-founded by Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey and Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm, Warhound will take high-performing military service dogs, biobank their genetic material and start churning out clones with targeted gene edits to improve performance.
All the noise in defence tech circles recently has been about drones, but Lamm points out that “a dog is the oldest autonomous system there is”. The US army has been working with dogs since 1942, but 80% of appropriate dogs are sourced from Europe, and costs are rocketing due to demand for the limited supply from armies around the world. Fewer than half the dogs that enter training are judged fit for service after three years, and Warhound promises to edit out hereditary health conditions such as hip dysplasia, cancer risks and deteriorating eyesight.
Colossal Biosciences hit the headlines when it claimed to have brought back the dire wolf, which had been extinct for more than 10,000 years before it reappeared in Game of Thrones. It is apparently also working on the de-extinction of the woolly mammoth, though whether this will have any military application apart from looking awesome in a march-past remains unclear.
Anduril will supply advanced kit such as eye and ear protection, body armour and cybernetics to improve the dogs’ performance, and this is definitely a company to watch.
Volvo: No longer for life
Volvo may now be owned by the Chinese auto group Geely, but it is having a mighty struggle to sell any cars in the Middle Kingdom, with sales in China down 50% in the third quarter. Revenue was down 23% as it crashed to a net loss of $575m in the quarter, and it announced a further 2,500 job losses on top of the 3,000 it shed last year. The announcement hammered its share price down 30% on the day to a record low as the market decided that its cars might be famously safe but its future less so.
As well as its inability to compete with local rivals in China, the company was impacted by US tariffs and a downward adjustment of the revenue that it expected to generate from selling emissions tax reduction credits after President Donald Trump rolled back fuel efficiency standards. There is some chance that the war with Iran and rocketing fuel prices may make even the most ardent MAGA fan re-evaluate the wisdom of a 5-litre V8, but this will take time to filter through to the market.
Volvo is desperately trying to cut costs, as well as sharing components with the Geely group and using its software, but the reality is that European manufacturers across the board are struggling to compete with the Chinese, whose manufacturing costs are significantly reduced by state subsidies. China also enjoys energy costs that are about half those in Europe. Last month, the UK saw more Chinese cars sold than any other country of origin, and the bestselling vehicle was the Range Rover knock-off Jaecoo 7.
