Prediction Open AI assessment confidence: 85% certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Quaise can drill 20-kilometer deep holes in weeks, not years

Carlos Araque · HIBT Lab! Quaise Energy: Carlos Araque · Aug 4, 2022 · at 20:17

Quaise Energy co-founder and CEO Carlos Araque discusses with Guy Raz how quickly millimeter-wave drilling technology can penetrate 20 kilometers into the Earth compared to historical mechanical drilling.

0:00 / 0:01exact quote · 1.4s

720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark

“Oh, we're talking about weeks.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Quaise Energy's millimeter-wave drilling technology can drill a 20-kilometer-deep hole in weeks rather than years.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim states that Quaise Energy's millimeter-wave drilling technology can drill a 20-kilometer-deep hole in weeks rather than years. Because the speaker did not specify a deadline, the horizon is a pipeline default rather than a stated cutoff. Under default horizon rules, the claim remains open until demonstrated or definitively refuted. As of September 2026, Quaise Energy's maximum demonstrated field depth is approximately 118 meters in granite, achieved in 2025, with intermediate goals of 1 km in 2026 and 3 to 5 km planned for 2028-2030. As the 20-kilometer depth has not yet been attempted or achieved and development remains ongoing, the claim is not yet determinable.

As of September 2026, Quaise Energy's deepest publicly documented millimeter-wave drilling depth is 118 meters, reached at a Central Texas quarry in July 2025.
Field testing in 2025 demonstrated penetration rates of up to 5 meters per hour in solid granite, but operations have not yet scaled to superdeep depths.
Quaise Energy is currently targeting a 1 km depth milestone in 2026 and 3-5 km depths under Project Obsidian between 2028 and 2030, leaving a 20 km demonstration open for future verification.

Checked against

[1] ceramics.org [2] wikipedia.org [3] quaise.com [4] thinkgeoenergy.com [5] youtube.com [6] quaise.com [7] newatlas.com [8] mit.edu

Quaise Energy drilled 20 km hole Quaise Energy millimeter wave drilling deep hole field test 2024 2025 2026 deepest borehole drilled Quaise Energy Quaise Energy drilling progress milestones 2025 2026

assessed as of 2026-09-03

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

⏳ next review: 2027-08-04; checked again automatically on the next resolution wave

Mentioned

millimeter-wave drilling Quaise Energy

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Carlos Araque Aug 4, 2022 ▶ 32:17 HIBT Lab! Quaise Energy: Carlos Araque

Quaise can drill 20-kilometer deep holes in weeks, not years

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