How much venture capital funding has been invested in quantum computing companies in 2026?

Venture capital investments in quantum computing companies have surpassed $4 billion for 2026.

What is Google's Project Suncatcher and when will it launch?

Project Suncatcher will launch on October 1, 2026, featuring four custom Trillium TPUs that operate on solar power in outer space.

What is Pilgrim developing with its $25M seed funding?

Pilgrim is using the $25M seed funding to develop a device that combines air sampling and localized genomic sequencing for detecting and identifying airborne biological threats.

Jay Cuthrell September 27, 2026 WTF

What The Fudge for September 27, 2026: Quantum Momentum, Orbital AI, and the Agentic OS

A day-by-day look at the week's critical tech developments, spanning quantum capital, space-based data centers, and enterprise autonomous agents.

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🎙️ The Hardened Infrastructure Edition

Welcome to What The Fudge podcast for Sunday, September 27, 2026. This week will spend a couple of minutes breaking down the stories that caught my attention each day for the past week. Following last week’s format, I am bringing the deep links and coverage directly into the topics I am referencing.

📍 Field Report: Quantum Capital and Validation at Scale

VC Quantum Interest Rising: VCs reached +$4B in quantum computing companies investments for 2026. More: FT: Can quantum turn ‘magic’ into money? and meta coverage
Quantum Topological Test: Microsoft’s Majorana 2 chip quantum research center is now open to DARPA evaluation teams for testing the topological architecture. More: Reuters: Microsoft to give DARPA hands-on access to quantum system at new Maryland site and meta coverage

🚀 Infrastructure: Orbital AI Compute and Terrestrial Enterprise Agentic OS

Orbital AI: Google’s “Project Suncatcher” will launch on October 1, 2026 with four custom Trillium TPUs that operate on solar. More: NYT: Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space and meta coverage
Enterprise Agentic OS: Microsoft Copilot now consolidates enterprise tools into a unified AI harness. More: The Verge: Microsoft thinks its new Copilot ‘super app’ will be as influential as Office and meta coverage

🧬 Software: Autonomous Science and Biosurveillance in a Box

Autonomous Scientific Discovery: It appears that a swarm of AI agents have autonomously discovered an enzyme system hidden within the DNA of bacteriophages that is similar to CRISPR arrays. More: The Verge: Anthropic’s biolab made a discovery it’s comparing to Crispr and meta coverage
Biosurveillance: Pilgrim took $25M seed to develop a device that combines air sampling and localized genomic sequencing for detecting and identifying airborne biological threats. More: WSJ: Anthropic Leaders Back Startup Developing System to Detect Biological Threats and meta coverage

Thanks for listening to What the Fudge podcast. Be safe and be well.

#OpenToWork Weekly

I participated in a #NeverSearchAlone #JSC after rebooting Cuthrell Consulting and joining NexusTek.

I added those #OpenToWork from my LinkedIn network to this newsletter. Over time, we’ve grown an Alumni 🎉 section for those that transitioned to their next career adventure.

Alumni 🎉

Those in my network that are #OpenToWork:

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