Startup Founder Diversifies Defense Portfolio

Ethan Thornton, who is now twenty-two years old, has established a successful defense technology company named Mach Industries. He dropped out of college at MIT when he was nineteen because he wanted to build weapons. Although his first hydrogen project failed, he has now raised four hundred eighty-five million dollars in total. His company recently completed a funding round that valued the startup at one point eight billion dollars.

Thornton grew up in a Texas town that has only six thousand five hundred residents. When he was a teenager, he became very concerned about the rising power of China. He believed that unmanned machines would redefine warfare and that America was moving too slowly.

Consequently, Mach Industries has chosen to develop six different weapons programs at the same time. Some outsiders worry about this plan, but Thornton believes that defense is like a chess game. He points out that a country needs hundreds of products to win against a strong adversary. If a company builds only one product, they might lose this game very quickly.

Their projects include anti-ship missiles, strike aircraft, and systems that fly high in the stratosphere. Recently, they announced a forty-foot Navy aircraft that carries a one-thousand-pound payload over a thousand miles. The company has already won thirteen government contracts that are in the testing stage. They hope to start rate manufacturing soon and will build a factory for this purpose.

In addition to building vehicles, the startup has decided to sell engines and rocket motors. In May, they bought a company named Exquadrum for fifty million dollars to secure components. Selling these engine parts now makes up about half of the revenue for Mach Industries.