5 Feb 2026

Tech: Will AI kill SaaS, govt invests in fusion as MethaneSAT failings examined

From Nine To Noon, 11:05 am on 5 February 2026
A group of people in a control room watch a large screen displaying a rocket on a launch pad, with a countdown timer at T-00:00:01. The screen also shows telemetry data and an image of Earth with a satellite. Multiple computer monitors in the control room display various data and graphs related to the rocket launch.

MethaneSAT launch viewing party at RocketLab in Auckland. Photo: Stuart Mackay / Earth Sciences New Zealand

Technology correspondent Peter Griffin looks at concerns within the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry about what AI generation could do.

The government is set to invest $35m in OpenStar Technologies to build a bigger fusion reactor, but should there be some caution with that, given what happened with the $30m investment in MethaneSAT?

Peter Griffin is a Wellington-based technology journalist

 

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