This High-Tech Factory Makes Parts For Rockets And Fighter Jets Ten Times Faster
Hadrian founder and CEO Chris Power has raised $180 million to manufacture metal parts at warp speeds at his California factory. Now he’s got plans to build a network of them across the country to make more parts better, faster and cheaper.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2024/08/15/this-high-tech-factory-makes-parts-for-rockets-and-fighter-jets-10-times-faster-hadrian-chris-power/
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2024/08/15/this-high-tech-factory-makes-parts-for-rockets-and-fighter-jets-10-times-faster-hadrian-chris-power/
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Transcript
00:00Today on Forbes, this high-tech factory makes parts for rockets and fighter jets 10 times
00:06faster.
00:08At Hadrian's Torrance, California factory, the machines keep working after their operators
00:13go home.
00:14Swing by after hours and you'll see them, displays aglow as they crank out parts in
00:18the dark.
00:20Chris Power, Hadrian's 33-year-old founder and CEO said, quote, we're running 24-7.
00:27There's a crew of people during the day and then it just runs itself.
00:30That's what our software does for manufacturing.
00:33Power's vision is somewhat different from other startups building tech to make other
00:36companies' factories more efficient.
00:39He's developed proprietary software to run Hadrian's own factory, which allows it to
00:44churn out all types of precision metal parts for aerospace, space, and defense companies
00:49faster, more efficiently, and with fewer people.
00:53Now he wants to build out a network of cookie-cutter, high-tech machine shops across the country
00:58to shake up a giant and fragmented industry.
01:01That's a difficult and capital-intensive project, but one that Power argues is crucial for America's
01:06industrial base.
01:08Investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, and Lux Capital, have bet $180
01:14million on it, and the company is now worth roughly $500 million.
01:20While the three-year-old business is still small, having just launched commercially in
01:242023, it's growing fast.
01:27It brought in $3 million in revenue last year, and Power expects to increase that number
01:32tenfold this year, reaching at least $30 million, as it ramps up production from its factory
01:38near Los Angeles.
01:40Those numbers helped Hadrian make the cut for this year's Next Billion Dollar Startups
01:44list, which was released last week.
01:47The Next Billion Dollar Startups list is Forbes' annual showcase of the 25 companies we think
01:52most likely to reach a $1 billion valuation.
01:57There are huge risks to building a new high-tech manufacturing business.
02:01Metal parts that go in rockets or satellites need to be extremely precise, yet production
02:06quantities of each part are very limited.
02:09That's quite different from automotive factories, where manufacturers churn out standardized
02:13parts in vast quantities.
02:16As a result, many machine shops for such specialized parts have stayed small, despite the industry
02:21being as large as $50 billion.
02:24According to Power, Hadrian currently produces thousands of parts each month, comprising
02:28hundreds of unique ones.
02:31John Hart, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and director of its Laboratory for
02:36Manufacturing and Productivity, said, quote,
02:39There is certainly an opportunity to improve the speed and efficiency with which parts
02:43are made.
02:44That said, machining is still really complicated.
02:48Hadrian's software is what enables its existing factory to make spaceflight-grade parts ten
02:53times faster and more than 40% more efficiently than legacy manufacturers.
02:58That software allows Hadrian to take legacy designs or CAD files from customers and turn
03:04them into digital instructions to make finished parts.
03:07It also operates as a brain for the factory, letting it track and schedule jobs, and allows
03:12the machines to run on autopilot and be inspected autonomously.
03:17That permits Hadrian to produce parts at a speed that has its customers excited.
03:21This is a market where the delay in one small part can mess up an entire rocket launch or
03:26postpone a delivery of a needed fighter jet.
03:29Dana Grayson, co-founder of Construct Capital, an investor in Hadrian and other manufacturing
03:34startups, said, quote,
03:36I think we're just at the early innings of how to change the whole industrials market
03:40into a technology market.
03:42Power said that the need for a more efficient machine shop is so great that Hadrian has
03:46been growing at rates of 20% or more each month, despite not having set up a sales team
03:51until this spring.
03:53Now he wants to build out additional factories, speeding towards his vision of a network of
03:58automated plants across the country that can, as he sees it, help the U.S. maintain its
04:03industrial power against China.
04:06Power said, quote,
04:08If you want something made, we'll make it for you, higher quality, faster, and cheaper.
04:13For full coverage, be sure to watch our Forbes feature video on Hadrian and Chris Power,
04:18and check out Amy Feldman's piece on Forbes.com.
04:22This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:25Thanks for tuning in.