Nearly a century ago, a collective of inventors formulated R22, establishing an industry standard for cooling agents that endured for decades. That trajectory shifted abruptly when researchers discovered that R22 and similar chlorofluorocarbons were actively eroding the ozone layer, prompting a global phase-out.

Even so, contemporary air conditioners, freezers, and thermal management systems continue to depend on liquid coolants. These liquids remain notoriously expensive—as anyone replacing a vehicle's AC system knows—while exhibiting high volatility and driving global warming impacts that surpass the aviation sector. To compound matters, they are also flammable.

Enter Adam Slavney, co-founder of Watertown, Massachusetts-based Pascal, a venture engineering a solid refrigerant alternative to traditional liquids. The firm announced a $9.3 million influx of venture capital and grants to accelerate the commercialization of its inaugural refrigeration units deployed with its first commercial client.

How Solid Carbon Dioxide Cooling Works

Slavney outlined the underlying mechanics: carbon dioxide gas, pressurized at levels comparable to legacy refrigerants, is channeled into a porous solid cooling material. This action causes the material to heat up, allowing the thermal energy to be vented outward, much like the condenser coil located at the back of a standard household refrigerator. Reversing the cycle forces the material to drop in temperature, prompting it to absorb ambient heat and cool the surrounding environment.

Pascal is not alone in exploring alternative thermal dynamics. Phononic, for instance, has pursued a thermoelectric methodology to address the same challenge. However, Slavney highlights distinct competitive advantages in Pascal's architecture. "It allows us to use off-the-shelf components," he explained. "We’re operating at pretty reasonable pressures that are already used in the HVAC industry. We can use standard off-the-shelf compressors and parts."

Furthermore, replenishing leaked pressurized carbon dioxide is vastly simplified. Because standard refrigerants degrade and escape over time under strict regulatory controls, handlers typically require specialized licenses. In contrast, Slavney noted, "You need a license to handle refrigerants, but anybody can go buy a tank of carbon dioxide." Additionally, Pascal aims to achieve a 20-percent boost in energy efficiency relative to legacy setups, providing a critical edge amid escalating electricity costs.

AI Trends: Why Chat Interfaces Are Overrated

Venture investors tracking emerging technology sectors point out shifting paradigms in artificial intelligence. Vinay Kumar, co-founder of Ventana—a fund targeting AI integration in overlooked industries—argues that chat interfaces are currently overhyped.

For many users, interacting with artificial intelligence defaults to prompting a chatbot. Yet, most professional workflows do not originate with a prompt. Dental AI scribes automatically log exams to draft clinical notes for review, while online booking platforms can natively generate self-storage leases. As machine learning models advance, users will spend decreasing amounts of time crafting prompts and more time validating automated outputs.

Conversely, multimodal data ingestion deserves broader industry attention. Much of the discourse centers strictly on model capabilities, yet models depend entirely on their training inputs. In sectors like childcare, vital information remains offline—trapped in phone calls, paper forms, text threads, and human memory. Tools capable of capturing and structuring that fragmented data will unlock operational value that superior models alone cannot achieve.

Looking five years ahead, computer vision in the field will dominate discussions. Current AI typically reacts to typed or spoken inputs, but future iterations will process visual environments. Roofer photographs will generate instantaneous quotes, garbage truck cameras will automatically assess and bill for contamination, and building security networks will dispatch guards exclusively when anomalies arise.

Geopolitical and Economic Pressures Across Tech Markets

Infrastructure and supply chain dependencies continue to face headwinds across multiple sectors:

  • Starlink and Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that military operations still face Starlink connectivity limitations affecting drone deployment against Russian forces, while political claims regarding the removal of these caps remain unverified by SpaceX leadership.
  • Helium Supply Volatility: The federal government formally classified helium as a critical material due to its essential role in domestic manufacturing and heightened exposure to supply chain vulnerabilities. Spot prices have tripled following regional conflicts and shipping route closures in the Middle East.
  • Venture Funding and Token Demand: Financial markets show growing price sensitivity in token demand for AI initiatives, with spending concentrated largely among venture-backed entities. Slower-than-projected returns on investment could tighten venture capital availability and dampen compute demand.
  • Military Biotech Venture: Billion-dollar defense and deep-tech founders have launched Warhound, a specialized firm combining cloning and gene-editing technologies to engineer military-grade canines, securing substantial early funding despite significant logistical cloning hurdles.
  • Government Equity Stakes: The Department of Commerce continues its trend of taking equity positions in exchange for federal grants, allocating $389 million across fusion power developers and semiconductor startups.