Stardust #0028

Identity & Overview

• Stardust Solutions** is a for-profit solar geoengineering startup developing a proprietary Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) system designed to cool the planet by releasing reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to scatter incoming solar radiation. Stardust formed in 2023 and is based in Israel, but incorporated in the United States — specifically registered in Delaware with its headquarters in Ness Ziona, Israel, and plans to open a U.S. headquarters soon.
• All Three Co-Founders:**
• Stardust Solutions was founded in 2023 by Yanai Yedvab and Amyad Spector, nuclear physicists who met at an Israeli national laboratory, and particle physicist Eli Waxman, former chief scientist at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission.
• **Yanai Yedvab (CEO & Co-Founder):** Yedvab worked for many years at the center of the Israeli scientific and defense establishment. From 2011 to 2015, he was the deputy chief research scientist at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. He was also previously the head of the physics division at the highly classified Israeli nuclear research site in Negev, according to his LinkedIn. He holds a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics from Ben-Gurion University and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.
• **Amyad Spector (Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder):** Spector, age 42, has also spent much of his career working for the Israeli government. He was a physics researcher at the Negev Nuclear Research Center before working on unspecified R&D projects for the government for nearly a decade, as well as on its Covid response. He left the government in December 2022.
• **Eli Waxman (Lead Scientist & Co-Founder):** The company’s lead scientist, Eli Waxman, is the head of the department of particle physics and astrophysics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Waxman formerly served as Spector’s academic supervisor.
• Stardust’s story, in their telling, began in the wake of the pandemic, when they and their third co-founder — Eli Waxman — became curious about climate change.
• Core Technology:** Stardust Solutions proposes Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), a method involving injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to scatter sunlight back into space. The startup’s 25 staff scientists are developing a new reflective particle — which they say won’t make people sick or thin the ozone layer, unlike sulfur dioxide — and the technology to sprinkle it into the stratosphere and monitor where it goes.
• Business Model:** Few outsiders have gotten a glimpse of Stardust’s plans, and the company has not publicly released details about its technology, its business model, or exactly who works at its company. But the company appears to be positioning itself to develop and sell a proprietary geoengineering technology to governments that are considering making modifications to the global climate — acting like a kind of defense contractor for climate alteration. The company has confirmed this directly: “Our customers would only be governments,” Yedvab told The Independent. The Israel-based geoengineering startup has said it expects nations will soon pay it more than a billion dollars a year to launch specially equipped aircraft into the stratosphere.

Market Position

Stardust operates in the nascent, highly contested field of **Solar Radiation Management (SRM) / stratospheric geoengineering**, which sits at the intersection of atmospheric science, climate tech, and deep-state infrastructure contracting. This is not a consumer market; the intended “customer” is sovereign government bodies. Most geoengineering research today is led by scientists in the U.S. at universities and federal agencies, and the work they are doing is more or less accessible to public scrutiny. Stardust is at the forefront of an alternative path: one in which private companies drive the development, and perhaps deployment, of technologies that experts say could have profound consequences for the planet. **Key competitors and landscape:** – **Make Sunsets (USA):** The only other commercial SAI company of note. The company is, in many ways, the opposite of Make Sunsets, the first company that came along offering to send particles into the stratosphere — for a fee — by pumping sulfur dioxide into weather balloons and hand-releasing them into the sky. Many researchers viewed it as a provocative, unscientific, and irresponsible exercise in attention-gathering. Make Sunsets has raised more than $1 million from investors and sold more than $100,000 worth of “cooling credits” to customers. – **Academic/public sector programs:** Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program (canceled in 2024 after public opposition), the UK’s ARIA (£57M SRM fund), and NOAA-adjacent research. These are not direct commercial competitors but occupy the legitimacy space Stardust is trying to enter. – **Sunscreen:** A new company, Sunscreen, which hasn’t yet been announced, intends to use aerosols in the lower atmosphere to achieve cooling over small areas, purportedly to help farmers or cities deal with extreme heat. At the heart of this story is Stardust Solutions, a 25-person Israeli-U.S. startup that has rapidly become the most prominent commercial player in the field. The Israeli-U.S. startup Stardust Solutions raised $60 million in venture capital in its latest funding round — the largest venture investment to date for a for-profit company developing solar geoengineering technology. —

Traction & Scale

• **Team size:** Today, Stardust employs a roughly 25-person team that includes physicists, chemists, mechanical engineers, material engineers, and climate experts. Many of them are drawn from Yedvab and Spector’s previous work on Israeli R&D projects.
• **R&D stage:** The researchers have been conducting indoor trials since 2022 and testing SAI hardware outdoors since 2024. Yedvab said that the company has not performed any such outdoor experiments yet, but it has done “a few outdoor aerial checks” — meaning they have tested their dispersal system “under flight conditions,” but haven’t yet scattered their aerosols in the atmosphere.
• **Patent status:** Yedvab told Heatmap that it has developed a proprietary particle that meets its safety and reflectivity requirements. Stardust is now seeking a patent for the material, and it will not disclose the chemical makeup until it receives intellectual property protection.
• **Upcoming milestone:** Stardust plans to commence initial outdoor contained experiments as early as April 2026. These in-flight tests involve releasing the company’s proprietary reflective particles inside a modified aircraft flying at stratospheric altitudes (~11 miles/18 km), followed by onboard analysis of sucked-in stratospheric air to evaluate particle performance under real conditions.
• **Geographic base:** The company is based in Ness Ziona, Israel, and plans to open a U.S. headquarters soon.
• **Key governance milestone:** In February 2026, Stardust Solutions released guidelines for projects that aim to limit global warming by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth. The 14-page white paper called for researchers to use materials that are safe for humans and the environment, design systems that can be scaled up or down, and develop precise monitoring tools.
• **Government contracts:** None confirmed as of this report. Stardust notes their focus is research in anticipation of future government contracts for deployment.

Financial Picture

• Total raised to date:** Since its foundation, Stardust has raised a total of US$75 million.
• Round 1 — Seed ($15M, early 2024):** Stardust received $15 million in seed funding from the venture firm AWZ and SolarEdge, an Israeli energy company, in early 2024.
• Round 2 — Series A ($60M, October 2025):** The startup’s fundraising haul was led by Lowercarbon Capital, a Wyoming-based climate technology-focused firm co-founded by billionaire investor Chris Sacca. It was also backed by the venture capital arm of the Agnellis’ firm Exor, a Dutch holding company that is the largest shareholder of Chrysler parent company Stellantis, luxury sports car manufacturer Ferrari and Italy’s Juventus Football Club.
• Stardust’s new investors include the U.S. firms Future Ventures, Never Lift Ventures, Starlight Ventures, Nebular and Lauder Partners, as well as the British groups Attestor, Kindred Capital and Orion Global Advisors. Future Positive Capital of Paris and Berlin’s Earth.now also joined the fundraising round. Former Facebook executive Matt Cohler also participated as an individual investor.
• Valuation:** Stardust has not disclosed a valuation.
• Revenue:** Zero. The company has no commercial revenue; it is pre-deployment and pre-contract. All capital is burn-funded R&D.
• Deployment revenue projection (self-reported):** The Israel-based geoengineering startup has said it expects nations will soon pay it more than a billion dollars a year to launch specially equipped aircraft into the stratosphere. This is a forward-looking claim with no independent verification.

Public Sentiment

Stardust has no consumer app, no app store presence, and no user base in the traditional sense. Public sentiment divides sharply along three tracks: the scientific community, environmental advocates, and geopolitical/security critics. **Scientific community — skeptical but credentialed-respectful:** No one is questioning the scientific credentials of Stardust. The company was founded in 2023 by a trio of prominent researchers, including Yedvab, who served as deputy chief scientist at the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. However, the core technology claims draw sharp rebuttals. As David Keith, a professor at the University of Chicago and a leading voice in geoengineering research, bluntly stated in Bloomberg: “Claims of an inert stratospheric particle are nonsense.” Even diamonds, he argues, would alter stratospheric chemistry at high altitudes. Yedvab said the particle can be inhaled “without any safety hazards.” Keith, the head of the University of Chicago geoengineering program, called that “total, unadulterated bulls—-.” On transparency, Shuchi Talati, founder of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, stated: “They’re not adhering to any of them” (regarding principles of governance like transparency and public engagement). “Pasztor’s report is the only public thing we know about them.” **Environmental NGOs — hostile:** People at Friends of the Earth, an environmental group that has long dismissed geoengineering as a “dangerous distraction,” echo Talati’s concerns. “I don’t think it’s compatible to have venture capital funding and to be committed to scientific ideals,” said Benjamin Day, FOE’s senior campaigner on geoengineering. **Former governance consultant — departed with concerns:** Janos Pasztor continued to work with Stardust throughout the year despite the company’s foot-dragging. He left that summer when he felt like he was becoming a spokesperson for a business that he merely advised. **Governance/policy analysts:** Stardust has not communicated much about the details of what it is doing (lack of transparency), so the world does not know what is going on; it is wrong and dangerous for the private sector to fund and do R&D on SAI without social license. —

Media & Press

Coverage has been intense and predominantly critical, spanning mainstream outlets, scientific journals, and activist media. **Major coverage timeline:** – **April 2024 — NPR:** First significant public profile, reporting on the company’s $15M seed round and describing Stardust alongside Make Sunsets as solar geoengineering’s two commercial entrants. – **March 2025 — Undark / Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:** Few outsiders have gotten a glimpse of Stardust’s plans, and the company has not publicly released details about its technology, its business model, or exactly who works at its company. But the company appears to be positioning itself to develop and sell a proprietary geoengineering technology to governments — acting like a kind of defense contractor for climate alteration. – **February 2025 — CIEL statement:** US-Israeli start-up Stardust Solutions cited and endorsed on its website a report describing its plans to develop and commercialize a highly controversial solar geoengineering technology. – **October 2025 — Heatmap (exclusive):** Broke the $60M raise story. The funding announcement represents a coming out of sorts for Stardust, which has been one of the biggest open secrets in the small world of solar geoengineering researchers. – **October 2025 — Politico / E&E News:** Confirmed the $60M round and the April 2026 experiment timeline. – **December 2025 — MIT Technology Review:** Explained why many scientists are freaked out about the first serious for-profit company moving into the solar geoengineering field. – **December 2025 — Washington Post:** Published an in-depth comparison of Stardust and Make Sunsets. – **February 2026 — Politico / E&E News:** Covered Stardust’s release of its self-authored safety standards white paper. These guiding principles are extremely broad and self-authored — there are no mechanisms for independent verification, no processes for implementation, and crucially, the core technology itself remains proprietary and undisclosed. – **ScienceDirect (peer-reviewed, 2025):** Stardust Solutions, an Israeli start-up headquartered in Silicon Valley, has raised over $15 million on the basis of a commercially confidential solar geoengineering technology, including from a Canadian venture capital fund with deep ties to the Israeli defense and security sectors. —

Current Status

As of April 2026, Stardust is in **active growth and high-profile controversy** simultaneously. The company is in the final stages of transitioning from lab-based research to its first stratospheric field experiments. Key current indicators: – Stardust claims to have developed a new type of reflective particle for SAI and is seeking to patent it. The nature of these particles has not yet been revealed, but the company announced that it would publish its key findings in early 2026. – Over the coming months, Stardust stated it will publish its scientific work, disclose its particle composition and core technologies, and continue opening its work to independent validation. (Statement by Yedvab via SRM360, April 2026.) – The April 2026 outdoor experiments — which were planned as contained, in-aircraft tests at 18km altitude — were anticipated at the time of this report. Those tests would release the company’s reflective particles inside a modified plane flying about 11 miles (18 kilometers) above sea level. No confirmed public reporting of results as of this filing. – Funding for solar geoengineering research, particularly Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, is increasing rapidly despite the huge risks and uncertainties surrounding its deployment — overall funding for SRM jumped almost three-fold in 2025. Stardust is the primary driver of that surge. – Stardust may be the first SRM startup to enter the commercial mainstream, but it is unlikely to be the last.

— ## CONTROVERSY & INDEPENDENT SCRUTINY (ISRAEL-SPECIFIC)

This is the most active and sensitive dimension of Stardust’s profile. The company’s founding team carries deep roots in Israel’s nuclear and defence establishment — the Negev Nuclear Research Centre, the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, classified government R&D. This background raises legitimate questions that go beyond climate science.

Who ultimately controls a technology capable of modifying the planet’s atmosphere? If governments are the only customers, which governments? Under what international oversight? With what democratic mandate?

Israel has no formal geoengineering regulation. No international body has jurisdiction over stratospheric intervention. Stardust is operating in a governance vacuum — by design or by default — and its self-authored safety white paper fills that vacuum with principles it wrote for itself.

The deeper concern raised by independent analysts is not whether the technology works. It is who decides when, where, and how it gets deployed — and whether the rest of humanity gets a voice in that decision.

SUMMARY VERDICT

Stardust Solutions is the most credentialed, best-funded, and most controversial player in a field that didn’t exist commercially three years ago. The founding team is legitimate. The science is serious. The funding is real. But the governance is absent, the transparency is selective, and the technology — which could affect rainfall patterns, agriculture, and atmospheric chemistry across entire continents — remains proprietary and unverified by independent scientists.

The company’s own lead scientist’s former supervisor calls their safety claims “total, unadulterated bulls—-.” Their governance advisor left when he felt he was becoming a marketing asset. Environmental groups call it a dangerous distraction. And yet $75 million has flowed in, major experiments are underway, and billion-dollar government contracts are the stated goal.

One-line assessment: Stardust Solutions is either the most important climate company on Earth or the most dangerous one — and the disturbing truth is that right now, nobody outside the company knows which