Hadrian secures $260M in Series C capital
Gettyimages.com / Andriy Onufriyenko
By
Ross Wilkers
The five-year-old company views artificial intelligence and robotics as necessary to automate defense component manufacturing and make it happen at scale.
Hadrian, a startup that leans on automation techniques in manufacturing, has secured $260 million in Series C capital from investors to support its buildout of a larger facility and expansion of another hub.
Founded in 2020, Hadrian is pushing the increased use of artificial intelligence and robotics as its means to automate as much of the defense component manufacturing process as possible.
Torrance, California-headquartered Hadrian also touts a “factories-as-a-service” model that it set up to help other defense companies quickly scale their own facilities to meet demand for parts, assemblies or even entire products.
Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Lux Capital led the Series C round announced Thursday, which continues their involvement in Hadrian. Morgan Stanley is contributing a factory expansion loan facility as part of the arrangement.
A bulk of the Series C capital will go toward the construction of what Hadrian calls Factory 3 in Mesa, Arizona. This will complement the Torrance hub that is also slated to get more research-and-development space.
Hadrian views these moves as completing by January 2026 and helping contribute to the reindustrialization of the U.S. as its adversaries are ramping up their investments in production capacity.
"America cannot afford to lose another generation of industrial capacity," Hadrian’s founder and chief executive Chris Power said in a release. "We're building the factories that will secure American leadership in advanced manufacturing and create new jobs here in the United States. China is making massive bets on industrial dominance. The United States needs to respond not just with policy, but with production. That's what Hadrian is here to do."
Hadrian’s Opus software stack powers its autonomous production work and is designed to help get factories online within six months.
The company is also using the newfound investment to stand up a new maritime division focused on shipbuilding and naval defense offerings. Hadrian plans to unveil more manufacturing initiatives over the coming months across munitions, missile systems, unmanned aircraft and other areas.
Below is a CNBC interview with Power on the new investment and Hadrian’s overall strategy.