Maximilian Ahrens

Cofounder & CEO @tekton_dynamics (YC W24) | PhD in AI, Oxford | he/him

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

🦾🤖See you today at @Moonfire_VC's Pulse Summit to chat about adoptable AI robotics and governance for complex AI systems.

Side note: London is absolutely buzzing this week with AI, robotics, and tech events! 🫶🇬🇧

Follow us for more @maihem_ai

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

https://t.co/d5sFbMb6ja

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

The UK needs ~35,000 new welders by 2027. The average welder is 55, many retiring. Apprenticeships down 45% in a decade.

You can’t build a resilient (defence) industrial base without the people who join metal together.

We @tekton_dynamics are at the Defence Procurement Conference in Birmingham making the case for a different answer: AI that turns any robot into an expert welder.

Don’t replace welders. Multiply them.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

apply here: https://t.co/oWgfzYe78m

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

Make your code move metal — not pixels.

2026 is off to a massive start at @maihem_ai . We’ve signed the partners and the manufacturers. Now, we are heading into real-world factory deployments.

Our velocity is outstripping our headcount. We're looking for a cracked Senior Robotics Perception Engineer to join the founding team.

If you've shipped perception that works in the messiness of the real world (occlusion, glare, dust, motion blur, bad lighting) and you want to own our perception stack end-to-end, keep reading.

Our mission:
We're building the AI-driven perception and reasoning foundation for the next era of industrial robots. We’re moving past rigid, scripted automation — toward machines that see, plan, and adapt in real time, with the precision the job demands.

What you’ll own:
- Real-time 2D/3D perception: detection / segmentation / pose / tracking
- Camera + depth + multi-sensor calibration, synchronization, and latency budgets
- Evaluation + data flywheel: metrics, test harnesses, dataset strategy
- Shipping perception that runs on real hardware and moves physical mass every day

We’re a small, high-intensity team. You won’t just be “contributing” — you’ll make foundational architecture calls, set technical direction, and ship physical AI that runs in factories.

🔗 If that sounds like you: apply via the link in the comments.
👇 Know someone world-class? Tag them below.

PS: We just wrapped our annual offsite at Sequoia National Park (pics below). We’re having lots of fun too while building the AI intelligence layer for manufacturing robots.

[Tekton Dynamics @tekton_dynamics]

We're hiring! Join our founding team as our Senior Robotics Perception Engineer and own the perception stack end-to-end! 🦾 🔥

Do your most impactful work with us and build physical AI that runs in factories every single day.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

Today at @FabtechExpo : 4pm

☕️ 🍰 Join me for Coffee, Cake, and Weld at the Starbucks by booth B12000. I’ll cover the tab. Bring your questions, your ideas, or just your curiosity about autonomous welding. You can’t miss me, I’m the guy in THAT t-shirt.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

ℹ️ The resonance is real. Our material has been flying off the table. What struck me most: manufacturers are visibly relieved to see AI software that makes welding robots autonomous without the need for programming. That pain point is universal—and it shows.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

Heading into Day 2 at FABTECH Expo — first impressions from yesterday:

🤖🦾 AI-powered robotics is everywhere. Particular focus lies on technology that makes robot usage more versatile. Our AI software for adaptive welding robots does just that.

@maihem_ai @FabtechExpo #welding

[Kevin Black @kvablack]

In LLM land, a slow model is annoying. In robotics, a slow model can be disastrous! Visible pauses at best, dangerously jerky motions at worst. But large VLAs are slow by nature. What can we do about this? An in-depth 🧵:

[Saman Farid @samanfarid]

"Robotics is going to be the biggest industry in the history of the planet" 🦾

Robotics and automation will be the foundation of every factory that wants to scale.

Hundreds of machines, guided by human oversight, working behind the scenes, delivering products faster, better, and more reliably. This is how the world continues to build.

[Tekton Dynamics @tekton_dynamics]

Excited about the progress in open-source AI robotics! We can't wait to try it out in our AI robots.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

Last year's Pulse summit was already a fantastic gathering point for folks curious and courageous to shape the future. Mattias Ljungman, Mike Arpaia, Akshat Goenka and Alice Pillar from Moonfire made this year's edition even more exhilarating. Wouldn't want to miss it.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

🦾🤖See you today at @Moonfire_VC's Pulse Summit to chat about adoptable AI robotics and governance for complex AI systems.

Side note: London is absolutely buzzing this week with AI, robotics, and tech events! 🫶🇬🇧

Follow us for more @maihem_ai

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

Excited to be joining an exceptional line-up at Moonfire Pulse 2025 to talk about how we design adaptable AI systems for the physical world.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

If you’re exploring how AI-powered robotics could unlock substantial productivity in your industry, DM me. Come join the conversation!

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

@firstminutecap Summit 2025 delivered. From Eric Schmidt to founders of Hugging Face, and Palantir, to leaders in government - it’s been an incredible line up of speakers.

🦾🤖 I had countless conversations on the same theme—how adaptable AI robots can supercharge industries.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

AI-powered robots are critical for reindustrializing economies, iterating faster on physical products, and staying globally competitive.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

@hasan_sukkar_ You’ve got this, Hasan!

[Tekton Dynamics @tekton_dynamics]

Dear DPD UK and @Geopost_news , we'd be more than happy to help you out! Last week was a tough one. How about a 50% discount on our solutions if you let us help robustify your conversational AI? We mean it 🖤 ❤️ ! DM us!

https://t.co/wP2X8WXLgf

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

Choose https://t.co/gtZn3BFwqD, not AI mayhem.

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

“Utterly useless” and “swears at customer”. No company wants such descriptions associated with its customer support AI – let alone be prominently featured in the press for such an AI blow-up. Yet, that’s exactly what happened to @Geopost_news 's DPD...
https://t.co/i2OYXTIPUP

[Maximilian Ahrens @_MaxAhrens_]

At @maihem_ai , we provide automated and comprehensive stress-tests for LLM-based applications with our state-of-the-art synthetic data simulations – to make AI safer and perform better. Let us find the weaknesses of your AI before your customers do.