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I went to the 'save America' conference in Detroit, where patriotic founders vied for VC dollars
I went to the 'save America' conference in Detroit, where patriotic founders vied for VC dollars

Business Insider

time21 hours ago

  • Business
  • Business Insider

I went to the 'save America' conference in Detroit, where patriotic founders vied for VC dollars

At a still-under-construction tower in downtown Detroit, venture capitalists and founders from both coasts gathered for the second annual Reindustrialize Summit. The site was a fitting, if unintentional, metaphor for the conference's central theme: how startups and venture capitalists can spur an American industrial renaissance. The conference speakers, who were mostly company builders and their investors, boldly shared the event's mission: "Welcome to year two of the save America conference," Chris Power, CEO of automated factory startup Hadrian, said in his opening speech. "We're about to go into a generational grudge match with the Chinese Communist Party." Reviving the country's manufacturing and defense base has become an ascendant obsession in Silicon Valley, fueled in part by Trump 2.0's assertions about tariffs energizing American manufacturing and a proposed $1 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2026. (The House passed an $832 billion defense funding bill for the same year early Friday.) Y Combinator, a program that invests in and provides mentorship for early-stage startups, collaborated with the June event in requesting applications from founders who hope to modernize manufacturing. According to PitchBook, defense tech investments soared to $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, compared with $200 million in the same period last year. A handful of companies announced news at the two-day event in what seemed like a competition for venture eyeballs. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey hinted at the possibility of the company producing American-made computers. Hadrian announced its $260 million Series C financing led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital, and a factory expansion loan facility arranged by Morgan Stanley. Chariot Defense, a startup that makes energy infrastructure for the military, launched at Reindustrialize, publicizing a seed funding round led by General Catalyst and XYZ Venture Capital. Regent said that it will start making its seaglider vessels for defense applications. It became yet another company targeting dual-use strategies. And California Forever, the group behind a new city a stone's throw away from San Francisco, announced on Thursday plans to build a manufacturing park. Please help BI improve our Business, Tech, and Innovation coverage by sharing a bit about your role — it will help us tailor content that matters most to people like you. What is your job title? (1 of 2) Entry level position Project manager Management Senior management Executive management Student Self-employed Retired Other Continue By providing this information, you agree that Business Insider may use this data to improve your site experience and for targeted advertising. By continuing you agree that you accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . 'The art of the possible' Growing geopolitical tensions with China, which has a strong manufacturing base and a modernizing military, undergirded Secretary of the Navy John Phelan's address about the importance of skilled laborers in the industrial race against American adversaries. "We've spent the last 10 years teaching people how to code," he said in a speech on Wednesday. "We're going to spend the next 10 years teaching people how to use their hands." Selling venture capitalists with deep pockets on the image of a pro-industrialization America seemed as important as the mission itself. Whitney Houston's 1991 Super Bowl performance of the national anthem blasted over speakers to a packed auditorium before Phelan's speech. The conference's imagery blended old and new Americana: a waitress confronted with a buzzing drone, a worker riding an electric scooter, and Wyoming's cowboys under the shadow of the Grand Tetons and a fighter jet. "The people that founded this country and the people that pushed out into the frontier are really inspiring to a lot of the folks who are attending," Mike Slaugh, a Reindustrialize cofounder and producer, told Business Insider. "They see the art of the possible." Slagh worked on Reindustrialize's branding with Warpcraft, a design firm for hardware and frontier tech startups. He said the creative team generated and edited the images using artificial intelligence. Americana Swagger Attendees' outfits spoke volumes, too. They sported event-provided nametags affixed to American flag-printed lanyards and picked up tie-dye merch on their way out. Some strutted the halls wearing "Make American Nuclear Great Again" caps, a riff on Trump's MAGA trucker hat. Others opted for headgear that promoted their portfolio companies. Swag aside, Gregory Bernstein, a Reindustrialize cofounder and CEO of investment firm New Industrial Corporation, told BI that the mission captivated many: "It's like an actual movement," he said. "The people who come are here because they legitimately want to solve this problem. It's not an ego thing." But not everyone bought in. Protesters from a group called Engineers Against Apartheid, according to a flyer obtained by BI and distributed by the demonstrators, gathered outside the conference venue and in front of a nearby Gucci store to protest the event and defense companies like Palantir Technologies. Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said at the conference on Thursday, "Our greatest threat isn't China. It's ourselves."

Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts
Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Automotive
  • Yahoo

Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts

Investors are continuing to rally behind the call to reindustrialize American industry, this time by building out a $260 million war chest for automated manufacturing startup Hadrian to scale its factory footprint and make even more machine parts. Hadrian's aim is to modernize American manufacturing by leveraging advance automation to deliver mass-produced parts for aerospace and defense companies at a fraction of the time. It's a huge change to the status quo: a manufacturing industry that's largely populated by dozens of small machining shops run by an aging workforce. Hadrian's first target was high-precision CNC machining, a manufacturing process that makes parts to extremely tight tolerances — often measured in the microns, not millimeters (a single human hair is anywhere from 50 to 120 microns in thickness). Now, in addition to that core CNC offering, the company is getting ready to diversify into welding, casting, additive, and other processes, Power said in a post on X. (He did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment on the new round.) The hefty new round will also go toward building out a new Arizona facility, dubbed 'Factory 3,' slated to come online by Christmas 2025. That factory will offer four times the machining throughput of Hadrian's second factory. Hadrian is also expanding its 500,000-square-foot headquarters and R&D space in Torrance, California, with the new funding. The company will also start offering divisions for maritime and munitions-specific parts 'to meet the sale and speed needed to reclaim our birthright as the industrial superpower of the world,' Power said on X. Hadrian's business model is not just selling parts, but also a 'factories as a service' model that will see dedicated facilities for customers that want to ensure committed factory capacity. Speaking at the Reindustrialization Summit on Wednesday, Power argued that reshoring domestic production is nothing less than existential: 'This country is heading into a generational fight,' he said. 'The hour is extremely late. The great game is on … We have an incredibly short window to prepare for this, fix it, reindustrialize the country and return to what made us great in the first place.' The new round was led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital, with Morgan Stanley providing financing for the factory expansion. New investors Altimeter, 1789 Capital, and existing investors a16z, Construct Capital, and 137 Ventures also participated. The company has now raised nearly $500 million since it was founded in 2020.

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