Andrew Yang thinks the biggest startup opportunity of the next decade is not building AI. It is lowering the cost of living for the people AI is about to displace. In a TechCrunch interview, the former presidential candidate and UBI advocate laid out a thesis: as AI compresses wages and eliminates entry-level jobs, the market opportunity shifts to companies that make basic needs cheaper.

“AI is going to suck up a lot of the value and the jobs, and then Americans are going to look up and say, ‘How do I meet basic needs?‘” Yang said. He sees “a very rich vein of opportunity” in startups that bring down costs in housing, education, food, fuel, transportation, media, and wireless.

Yang’s proof of concept is Noble Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator he launched last September. It sells cell service at a fraction of traditional carrier prices and gives customers money back if they use less data. The company has grown to “thousands and thousands” of customers and is generating “millions in revenue.” It is unit profitable per customer.

The model was inspired by Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, which sells pharmaceuticals at cost plus a flat markup. Yang sees both companies as early examples of an emerging category where the value proposition is the margin the startup gives back, not the margin it extracts. Misfits Market (discounted groceries) and Light Phone (minimalist hardware) fit the same pattern.

“We’re unit profitable per customer, but we just share the profits with our subscribers with the idea that it’ll make you happy, you’ll stay around, and maybe you’ll tell your friends and family,” Yang said.

The challenge is capital. Investors want AI companies, not consumer-facing businesses with thin margins and social missions. “I had at least one investor say to me around Noble Mobile, ‘Love you, Andrew, want to work with you if you could just make this an AI company, we’ll invest,’” Yang said. The workforce displacement Yang warned about in 2020 is now showing up in data: Goldman Sachs estimated 16,000 US jobs lost to AI per month, and entry-level workers are absorbing the most damage.

Yang is still an advocate for universal basic income but is less confident the government will deliver it. “There is room for a direct connection between the money and the people,” he said. Where policy fails, market incentives can step in. A $50 monthly saving, invested and compounded over 40 years, amounts to $24,000, enough for a retirement down payment.

The thesis is contrarian in a venture market that has poured $700 billion into AI infrastructure this year alone. But Yang’s argument has an uncomfortable logic to it: even the most extractive companies need consumers with enough buying power to buy their products. “The value being concentrated in the hands of a handful of folks and firms is just bad for everybody,” he said. “There are some folks I know in Silicon Valley who are open to that for a variety of reasons, like they just don’t want to have to hire private security.“

Quantum Space, a startup with plans to build highly maneuverable spacecraft for the U.S. military, announced plans to go public through a $1.2 billion merger with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

In a season of mega-IPOs, there’s something almost quaint about a SPAC — in 2021, a fad for going public through the vehicle began in the space sector and spread throughout the tech world. Many SPACs proved disastrous for retail investors who wagered on immature companies, but a few deals, notably Rocket Lab and Planet, proved successful.

Another positive outcome was Intuitive Machines, a purpose-built NASA contractor launched by Kam Ghaffarian, a long-time space investor who backed a team of former NASA officials eager to sell their expertise back to the agency. Today, Intuitive Machines is a $6.4 billion company sending a regular cadence of robotic missions to the moon.

Now, Ghaffarian is trying to do it again with Quantum Space, a startup he launched in 2020 to capitalize on the founding of the U.S. Space Force and the growing need for vehicles that can move between orbits and rendezvous with other spacecraft.

“Defense spending, space infrastructure, and America’s strategic priorities in orbit are converging at exactly the moment Quantum Space is ready to scale,” Ghaffarian told TechCrunch. “The Space Force’s requirements are growing rapidly, and demand for maneuverable spacecraft is accelerating. Ranger is purpose-built to meet both.”

At the helm is CEO Jim Bridenstine, a former member of Congress and the NASA administrator during President Donald Trump’s first term. A champion of public-private partnerships, Bridenstine will aim to leverage his knowledge of the space industry to win key contracts.

Quantum Space is involved in six government development programs, including one that may see its vehicle head for the moon. But the company has a simple focus.

“We are designed specifically for the national security,” Bridenstine said. While most satellites only carry enough fuel to alter their position slightly and eventually dispose of themselves, a newer generation of spacecraft — including some fielded by Russia and China — are designed to move rapidly between orbits and remain in place for sustained surveillance work.

Ranger, the company’s spacecraft, is designed to match and exceed those competitors. It is expected to carry significant fuel, allowing it to remain in high orbits over long periods to watch rival satellites. The vehicle also has to be refuellable in order to qualify for Andromeda task orders.

Quantum Space was selected to join the Andromeda contract, a $6.2 billion effort that will task companies to develop vehicles for space-based reconnaissance. Now it has to win task orders for actual funded missions starting in 2030.

The SPAC transaction is expected to raise $300 million in private investment alongside any public proceeds, which will be used to build manufacturing facilities in Tulsa, Oklahoma, capable of producing one Ranger per quarter by the end of 2028. The next step is launching the first Ranger prototype to orbit in 2027. The deal is sponsored by Mike Blitzer, the financier who helped bring Intuitive Machines and USA Rare Earth to public markets.

Still, the decision to leave private markets behind highlights the competition Quantum Space faces. True Anomaly, a startup that is also competing for Andromeda task orders, has raised $1 billion from venture investors. The company is also looking to beat out established defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing’s Millennium Space Systems, among others.