Hop Aero is building rockets that can deliver cargo anywhere on Earth in minutes. They’re starting with military logistics and other time-sensitive payloads, including temperature-controlled materials with short shelf lives, where getting something there much faster can materially change the outcome. They’ve already built and successfully hot-fired a new rocket engine, and signed $1.37B in commercial LOIs.
Applied Electrodynamics is building cameras that can see through walls and other opaque materials. Using radio waves, their system can see through drywall, marble, and other surfaces to locate studs,
This week’s Paper Club is all about alternative compute. Modern AI has been shaped by a tight coupling between transformers, backpropagation, and GPUs. But as compute efficiency starts to plateau, the
Tensr is building robotic factories that build robots. Their 12,000-square-foot factory is already making humanoids, end effectors, and even robots for the International Space Station. Every order bec
One of the biggest surprises in AI over the last few years has been how well coding agents generalize beyond software. In a recent essay, MIT professor Philip Isola argued that we may be entering the
A lot of construction work is still done by hand simply because the machines to automate it don’t exist. That’s become a bottleneck for building things like solar farms, data centers, and other critic
Attack drones are reshaping modern warfare, but many countries still lack an effective way to defend their airspace. Earendil Robotics is building autonomous interceptors, along with the software and
YC works with thousands of founders every year, which gives us an early look at how startups are changing. Right now, the shift is striking: startups are moving from bits to atoms, nearly one in five
The best outbound starts before you automate anything. Founders need to learn who actually has the problem, what gets their attention, and what makes them reply. YC Visiting Partner Christina Gilbert
Magnets are becoming critical to the future of robotics, defense, and other major US industries. But 90% of rare earth magnet material is conventionally thrown away. The team at Mass Magnetics are rec
Introducing the YC Early Access Network. 4x a year, senior technology leaders get early looks at YC's enterprise AI companies and help shape their roadmaps. Invite-only, by application. Fall '26 kicks
