Arda Industries

Speeding up American manufacturing.

[Bob McGrew @bobmcgrewai]

It’s been amazing to work with Khosla Ventures. The entire team is incredibly smart and hard-working. And of course @vkhosla is a legend.

[Bob McGrew @bobmcgrewai]

Great to work with you and @felicis Peter!

[Kevin Weil 🇺🇸 @kevinweil]

Super excited for @bobmcgrewai and Arda. What an incredible mission 🇺🇸

[8VC @8vc]

The next generation of American manufacturing won't be built by replicating yesterday's factories. It will require fundamentally rethinking how we translate hardware innovation into production at scale.

Hardware products are evolving at an increasingly rapid pace, but the associated manufacturing processes remain a critical bottleneck. Every design iteration can require extensive engineering work to reconfigure assembly lines, slowing production and making domestic manufacturing prohibitively expensive.

Led by @bobmcgrewai, a longtime friend of 8VC, @Arda_Industries is tackling this challenge by applying AI to manufacturing engineering. Already deployed at @anduriltech, the technology is dramatically accelerating the translation of product designs into production, laying the foundation for a future of increasingly autonomous, adaptable factories.

We've long believed that some of the most consequential applications of AI will be in transforming the physical world. We're excited to back Bob and the Arda team as they redefine what's possible in advanced manufacturing!

[SV Angel @svangel]

Congrats to @bobmcgrewai and the entire Arda team on today’s launch! Excited to support their mission to accelerate American manufacturing - helping manufacturers bring designs into production faster today, with a vision for flexible, automated assembly lines ahead.

[Altimeter Capital @AltimeterCap]

Altimeter Partner Apoorv (@apoorv03) joined @Arda_Industries founder and CEO @bobmcgrewai on @CNBC with Kate Rooney (@Kr00ney) to talk about Arda’s launch and bringing advanced manufacturing back to America 🇺🇸

Key takeaways:

🔹 Speed is the bottleneck. You can retrain a human worker in a day, but updating factory automation takes three to six months. That’s why fast moving products get assembled overseas.

🔹 Act One is a Claude or Cursor for manufacturing engineers. At Anduril, an engineer used Arda to build out a 2,000 part avionics box in two days instead of a week.

🔹 Act Two is flexible automation: assembly lines that reconfigure as fast as you can teach a person a new task.

“The response to cheap manufacturing labor overseas is not cheaper labor.” The answer is AI and robotics.

📽️: https://t.co/efqAECaBlT

[CNBC @CNBC]

Former OpenAI exec has quietly built $1.5 billion startup, betting AI can revive U.S. manufacturing https://t.co/4MQQ4YibKC

[Kate Rooney @Kr00ney]

Exclusive: Former OpenAI exec @bobmcgrewai has quietly built $1.5 billion startup, betting AI can revive U.S. manufacturing

McGrew’s newest company, Arda, has raised $230 million at a $1.5 billion valuation and makes AI software he says can help bring manufacturing back onshore.

Sat down with Bob and Altimeter’s @apoorv03, who led the latest round. Full @CNBC interview here with more on OpenAI, building AGI, AI safety and how the startup’s ambition to disrupt manufacturing:
https://t.co/2Fmg0PMIkC

[augustus odena @gstsdn]

We started a new company: Arda. Arda helps other companies rapidly manufacture new, complex products at scale, and then change those products quickly as the world changes.

We do this by building AI that understands the manufacturing process from start to finish and then using that AI to help design and operate factories. In the future, this AI will control reconfigurable robot assembly lines that will produce a huge number of products much more cheaply.

We’re actively hiring people to work on AI + Robotics as well as for other roles. Please get in touch if that interests you.

[Hari Arul @hari_arul]

thrilled to co-lead this round with @vkhosla @SStrohband @khoslaventures . @bobmcgrewai is a singular leader, and we in the US could not be more fortunate he’s applying his energy to improving American manufacturing. congratulations!

[Bob McGrew @bobmcgrewai]

It's been a blast to work with @xyz_vc on Arda. I've been getting advice from @fubini since the early days of Palantir...

[Khosla Ventures @khoslaventures]

Proud to co-lead Arda’s $160M Series A alongside @AltimeterCap and @accel. Rebuilding American manufacturing means getting designs into production faster. Arda is already inside every division at @anduriltech, with reconfigurable automated assembly lines next.

Congrats to @bobmcgrewai and the team on today's public launch!

[Chauncey TK Hamilton @ImChauncey]

The most ambitious companies always start with the why - @bobmcgrewai and the team at @Arda_Industries were not content with the status quo of manufacturing in the US and asked the question why can't we build this at home? @xyz_vc lucky to be involved since Day 0. Let's go Arda!

[Michelle Sun @michellelsun]

Automating manufacturing is one of the most important and challenging problems to solve today.

Excited for what @bobmcgrewai and team Arda will build!

[Altimeter Capital @AltimeterCap]

Congrats to Arda and @bobmcgrewai on launching from stealth!

Arda's AI turns product designs into assembly lines that keep up as designs change, so America can build hardware that changes every year.

Altimeter is proud to lead the $160M Series A led by Altimeter partner Apoorv Agrawal (@apoorv03) with @Accel and @KhoslaVentures.

[Graham Littlehale @curious_graham]

When I left my first meeting with Arda, my jaw was on the floor. I’ve spent years researching digital engineering and advanced manufacturing, and @Arda_Industries is taking an approach that really resonated with me to bring manufacturing back onshore. Incredible team, and a lot of progress in a short time. Very excited to work with @pxd and the rest of the Arda team.

[Mark Scianna @markscianna]

I feel like the luckiest guy to have worked for Bob at Palantir, and now to support @Arda_Industries as they speed up American manufacturing!

Such a dream team doing incredibly important work. Check it out...

[Jakob Frick @new_io]

Getting Arda off the ground has been one of the highlights of my career.

Arda helps other companies rapidly manufacture new, complex products at scale, and then change those products quickly as the world changes.

[Felicis @felicis]

Hardware's no longer just “designed in the United States.” With @Arda_Industries, we build here, too.

Today Arda is out of stealth with an AI agent that turns CAD files into assembly instructions. At @anduriltech, it cut 10 hours of work to 15 minutes.

We’re proud to join its Series A. @pxd and @curious_graham on why we invested: https://t.co/XIxfNEqhXz

[Peter Deng @pxd]

We’ve been talking about how the industrial wave is coming. With @Arda_Industries, it’s officially here.

Today, Arda comes out of stealth with an AI agent that turns CAD files into assembly instructions. It’s already been deployed across every division at @anduriltech, reducing engineering workflows from 30 hours to 2.5.

That's step one of a three-act plan. Next: use those instructions to train robotic production lines that adapt quickly to new designs. Then: make it possible to build anything domestically.

Thrilled that we at @Felicis have joined this round. More at @felicis: https://t.co/8NTAiYH0Xx