Reimagining Matter

Materials in a regenerative world

Every era of human progress has been defined by the materials we could utilise. Stone gave way to bronze, bronze to iron, each step advancing civilization. The Industrial Revolution brought with it steel, aluminum, and a scale-at-any-cost production model. The principles that fueled this rapid growth are colliding with the limits of a finite world. Petrochemicals and plastics have left indelible marks on ecosystems, critical mineral extraction and refining are concentrated in a few geographies, and the global economy is increasingly vulnerable to a resource-constrained model.

This doesn’t have to be our future. For the first time since the industrial revolution we have the tools and conditions to give way to regenerative systems, where growth aligns with ecological health, and where resilience is built in, not added on.  Emerging technologies—AI, synthetic biology, quantum computing—aren’t just helping us find substitutes for finite resources; they’re fundamentally reorienting relationships with the matter around us.

Growth vs. Regeneration

Materials have been the primary lever of economic and social progress. The Bessemer process scaled steel production and drove urbanization; the Hall-Héroult process transformed aluminum from a luxury into a staple. These advancements shaped our world, but each step also brought new costs. Extractive processes consume vast energy, degrade ecosystems, and drive up costs as resources grow scarce. The fossil-fuel economy exemplifies these trade-offs—cheap oil initially powered growth, but it's true costs—environmental, geopolitical, financial—are increasingly untenable.

As we decarbonize, similar dynamics emerge around critical minerals like lithium, nickel, copper, cobalt, and more. These resources, essential for everything from batteries to electronics, are finite, costly, and concentrated in politically unstable regions. We face the prospect of scarcity-induced disruptions as supply chains grow more interdependent. The old model—of simply producing more, consuming more—will no longer serve us.

A resilient, regenerative economy requires a fresh approach to the nature of our materials economy. We need to shift from an extractive mindset to one that views materials as part of a larger system. The objective can no longer be to source smarter or mine deeper; it has to be to redesign the very way we think about materials. 

Inflection Points in Technology

The companies that will redefine materials are those innovating how materials are produced, not simply improving the materials themselves. Technologies like low-temperature nanomanufacturing, AI-driven material discovery, and bioengineering are hitting inflection points that allow us to move from theory to large-scale application. These technologies are transforming production processes, enabling the creation of high-performance, renewable materials that were previously impossible to scale sustainably.

Biomaterials and Synthetic Biology: Synthetic biology leverages the building blocks of life—DNA, proteins, and microbes—to produce high-performance materials. The bioeconomy is now reaching a tipping point, a potential that Cleantech 1.0 couldn’t quite achieve. Early biofuels were promising but failed economically due to inefficiencies; the technology wasn’t mature enough to compete with fossil fuels at scale. Today, however, synthetic biology, buoyed by decades of spillover from pharmaceutical investment, is enabling bio-based materials that are ecologically and economically viable.

It’s about more than bioplastics. We’re designing biomaterials that grow, repair, and even degrade in harmony with natural systems. Certain microbes and genetically optimised plants, for example, are engineered to extract rare metals from mine tailings and e-waste, transforming what was once pollution into a source of new value. Advances in chemistry and bioengineering allow us to create polymers and compounds that sequester carbon while replacing petrochemicals. Imagine materials that can grow from organic compounds, engineered to be as strong as traditional building materials, biodegradable enough to avoid pollution, and durable enough to surpass traditional options. We’re not merely replacing old materials; we’re rethinking how they can fit into natural cycles, tapping into renewable biological resources and minimizing waste.

Examples -> PACT, Endolith, Anthrogen, Bloomineral, Bloom Labs

Material Informatics and AI-Driven Discovery: AI introduces a fundamentally new way to design, test, and optimize materials. Material informatics allows us to simulate molecular behavior and predict material performance thousands of times faster than traditional methods. By feeding these models vast datasets, we can discover compounds optimized for specific applications, such as ultra-durable turbine blades or lightweight alloys for spacecraft. AI isn’t just a tool for discovery; it also helps optimize production processes, reducing energy costs and waste. This is a departure from the old model, where lab trial and error was the primary tool for progress. Now, AI can screen thousands of potential solutions in days, dramatically accelerating innovation. Practically, this enables us to develop materials that replace scarce resources with optimized composites and alloys, turning waste streams into valuable feedstocks and effectively overcoming resource constraints.

Examples -> Materials Nexus, Entalpic, Orbital Materials, Dunia

Nanotechnology: Nanotechnology allows us to engineer materials at the atomic and molecular levels -mimicking rare materials using more common elements and imbuing substances with previously unattainable properties. For instance, graphene offers conductivity and strength that can replace metals like copper, with transformative implications for energy storage and electronics. In computing, nanomaterials are poised to replace silicon, enabling greater efficiency and performance. This precision allows us to bypass resource constraints by crafting high-performance materials atom by atom, optimized for strength, conductivity, or flexibility, and unlocking entirely new applications.

Examples -> Milvus Advanced, DexMat, Nanoloom

Looking forward: Quantum Computing: Quantum computing offers a powerful frontier in materials science, providing the ability to simulate materials at the atomic level. At its core, quantum computing processes information in qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously, unlike traditional binary bits. This property allows quantum computers to model complex materials more accurately, potentially revolutionizing our ability to discover and harness materials like superconductors. Superconductors, for instance, support electrical currents with zero resistance, minimizing energy loss and making them invaluable for the energy transition. Classical computers are rapidly approaching their computational limits, but quantum computing can simulate vast arrays of potential materials, generating data that informs AI models and enables us to discover breakthrough materials faster than ever before.

A Process-Driven Approach

This era of materials innovation won’t be driven by traditional metrics of production volume or resource extraction. Instead, it will be defined by process-driven innovation. Category-defining companies will need to reimagine how we create and capture value, moving from volume-based metrics to a process-optimized system. 

In his article on the Techno-Industrial Revolution, Packy McCormick emphasizes how the fusion of technology with physical industries can lead to both enhanced performance and greater economic resilience. Companies prioritizing efficiency and durability over sheer scale will use these technological inflections to achieve structural economic advantages over incumbents. The true value lies not just in the products but in the processes that reshape the cost dynamics of the inputs fueling our economy.

This shift to process-driven value creation echoes the lessons from the drug discovery model: intellectual property alone, no matter how innovative, doesn’t guarantee commercial success. The biotech boom revealed the challenge of bridging the gap between groundbreaking research and market-ready products due to the immense capital requirements. To navigate this, materials companies are increasingly turning to a fabless model—one that combines powerful IP with pioneering processes like green chemistry and leverages outsourced manufacturing for scale.

The fabless model, as originally popularized by chip manufacturers, demonstrates that IP provides the foundation, but it’s the process innovation that enables scale. By focusing on partnerships with established manufacturers and investing in scalable processes, materials companies can reduce capital demands and accelerate time-to-market, bringing advanced materials to market readiness more efficiently. Success in this space will hinge not only on IP but also on the ability to innovate in the methods of production and distribution, ensuring these materials reach their full market potential with speed and resilience.

Take Solugen as an example – the real breakthrough lies in its integration of proprietary enzymes with precision manufacturing techniques, enabling cost-effective, low-waste production that challenges conventional resource-extraction paradigms. By prioritizing innovation in production methods, Solugen is positioned to redefine value creation within the chemicals sector, emphasizing that the future of materials will be built on the foundation of novel processes, not just products.

Our Planet is Demanding an Economy of Abundance

During New York Climate Week, our team spoke with advisors Alex Honnold and Seth Godin about the difference between being prepared and being ready. Decades of technological advances, foundational research, and strategic investment have prepared us to create materials that aren’t just better for the planet—they’re higher performance and lower cost. Now, the macroeconomic conditions are aligning to reveal a global readiness to adopt these innovations. Supply chain fragility, regulatory pressure, and consumer demand for sustainability are converging, driving widespread adoption of advanced materials, biomaterials, and circular production models. This readiness marks the tipping point, moving us from scarcity-driven extraction to abundant, regenerative material systems that can transform industries for the better.

For the first time, we have the tools to create an economy that not only sustains itself but also regenerates. By innovating on process, embedding circularity, and designing intelligent materials, we’re building a foundation for growth that contributes to planetary restoration. This is an economy where value is derived from intelligent creation, regeneration, and reuse, making scarcity a challenge we’re well-prepared to overcome. The future of materials isn’t about incremental improvements; it’s a fundamental shift toward a world of intelligent abundance. The companies that recognize and invest in this shift are not only poised to redefine materials—they’re positioned to shape the future.