The Great Blue Frontier

TLDR

• Ulysses co-founder Will O’Brien argues the ocean is humanity’s last and largest economic frontier, backed by a $46M a16z American Dynamism raise.

Key Takeaways

• The 1960s ocean dream rivaled the Space Race: JFK doubled federal oceanography spending, funded 10 new research vessels, and commissioned a $2B ten-year plan.
• SEALAB ran three progressively deeper underwater habitats; astronaut Scott Carpenter spent 30 consecutive days underwater on SEALAB II.
• By the late 1960s, over 60 underwater habitats dotted seabeds worldwide; the program collapsed after diver Berry Cannon died at 610 feet in 1969.
• Jacques Cousteau’s pivot from exploration to conservation in 1973 reshaped policy and funding priorities away from ocean settlement toward protection.
• Will O’Brien’s company Ulysses, via The Ocean Company, is building infrastructure to establish the ocean as a permanent fixture of the economy.

Why It Matters

• The ocean was once a coequal national priority alongside the Moon, then abandoned; the same technological and capital conditions may now revive that ambition.
• Ulysses raised $46M led by a16z American Dynamism specifically to build permanent ocean infrastructure, signaling serious institutional conviction.
• A generation of ocean settlement knowledge exists in SEALAB, Conshelf, and 60+ habitats that was shelved, not refuted, making the starting point higher than it appears.

Packy McCormick & Will O’Brien, Not Boring · 2026-04-23 · Read the original