The world doesn’t fix itself. These startups are trying 🌍🛠️🚀
The Top 100 HardTech Startups
Some people find it boring, but I can’t imagine a more exciting job than interacting with hardtech founders and watching them build our future—bit by bit, atom by atom, day by day—as they fix what’s broken across industries. Especially now, in a time when so much of our world feels fragile—climate, energy, manufacturing, security, even space—there’s a cohort of startups tackling the hardest, most consequential problems of our generation.
These are not just companies. They are missions.
Each one is taking on a high-stakes, low-margin, often technically impossible quest. From fission and fusion to supersonic flight. From defense autonomy to lunar logistics. From decarbonizing steel to roboticizing our farms and factories. They build the stuff that matters. The stuff you can't fake. The kind of innovation that takes years, not quarters, to come to life—but when it does, it reshapes entire industries!
Below is the full list but just to highlight a few examples, these are the kinds of startups that:
Turn air into fuel (Twelve, Air Company)
Reimagine nuclear power (Oklo, X-energy, Zap, TAE Technologies)
Engineer the materials of the future (Verdox, Sila Nanotech, Forge Nano)
Automate defense, manufacturing, and mobility (Anduril, Rapid Robotics, Machina Labs, Divergent)
Launch us into orbit—and beyond (Relativity, Varda, Inversion, SpaceX)
Bring science fiction closer to reality (Figure AI, Atom Computing, PsiQuantum)
It’s not just innovation for the sake of shiny demos. These teams are working to fundamentally shift how the world works—often behind the scenes, often with massive execution risk, and often with breakthroughs that seem impossible… until they’re not.
Why I think it’s important?
Because we need new infrastructure for the 21st century.
Because climate doesn’t wait.
Because national security depends on technological independence.
Because progress has to be built—layer by hardtech layer.
And because someone has to do the hard things. These founders chose to.
…𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆-> Link to HardTech Jobs
👉 Link to Airtable with the list of 100 of my favorite hardtech startups
+ the full list below 👇
1X Technologies - Electrical solutions for robotics, automation, and power
3DEO - High-volume metal 3D printing
8 Rivers - Clean energy and climate technology
Aether Games - Immersive digital experiences, gaming tech
Air Company - Carbon conversion, sustainable fuels
Alloy Enterprises - Advanced aluminum manufacturing
Anduril - Defense, autonomous systems
Antares - Advanced marine manufacturing
AnySignal - RF communications hardware
Apex - Satellite buses, spacecraft
Applied Intuition - Autonomous vehicle simulation
Arcadia Science - Bioengineering, synthetic biology
Astrolab - Lunar and planetary rovers
AstroForge - Asteroid mining
Atom Computing - Neutral atom quantum computers
Aurora Flight Sciences - Autonomous aircraft
Blue Current - Solid-state batteries
Blue Origin - Space launch, lunar landers
Boom Supersonic - Supersonic flight
Castelion - Hypersonic missiles
Chaos Industries - Defense, distributed sensing networks
Commonwealth Fusion - Fusion energy
Cover - Modular home manufacturing
CX2 - RF defense platforms
Cyclic Materials - Battery recycling
Dandelion Energy - Geothermal heating
Dirac - Quantum computing hardware
Divergent - 3D-printed automotive manufacturing
Epirus - Directed energy, counter-electronics
Fervo Energy - Enhanced geothermal systems
Firestorm Labs - Edge-manufacturable UAVs
First Resonance - Factory operating systems
Form Energy - Long-duration grid batteries
Galvanick - Industrial cybersecurity
Hadrian - Automated precision manufacturing
Helion Energy - Fusion energy
Impossible Metals - Underwater mining robotics
Impulse Space - Orbital transfer vehicles
Inversion - Space re-entry vehicles
K2 Space - Large satellite buses
Mach Industries - Advanced energetics, propulsion
Machina Labs - AI-driven sheet metal manufacturing
Markforged - Industrial 3D printing
Modern Electron - On-site power generation
Neros - FPV drones for defense
Northwood Space - Satellite ground stations
Oklo - Advanced nuclear reactors
OurSky - Space situational awareness
Picogrid - Sensor integration, defense
Pivot Bio - Microbial nitrogen for agriculture
PsiQuantum - Photonic quantum computing
Radiant - Portable nuclear microreactors
Rainmaker - Atmospheric water generation
Rangeview - Advanced manufacturing
Rapid Robotics - Robotic automation for manufacturing
Reflect Orbital - Space-based solar reflection
Relativity Space - 3D-printed rockets
Rocket Lab - Small/mid-lift launch vehicles
Sila Nanotechnologies - Battery materials
Senra - Manufacturing automation
Shield AI - AI pilot for UAVs
Sift - Sensor data observability
Skydio - Autonomous drones
SpaceX - Launch vehicles, Starlink
Starpath - Lunar resource utilization
Swarm Aero - Modular UAVs, autonomy
Syzygy Plasmonics - Chemical reactors powered by light
TAE Technologies - Fusion energy
Twelve - CO₂-to-chemical conversion
Umbra Space - Synthetic aperture radar satellites
Valar Atomics - Nuclear energy
Varda Space Industries - Microgravity manufacturing
Vast - Space habitats
Verdox - Direct air carbon capture
Voxel51 - Computer vision for physical world
X-energy - Advanced nuclear reactors
Zap Energy - Fusion energy
Zoo - AI for hardware design
Zymergen - Industrial biotechnology
AMP Robotics - AI-powered recycling systems
Amogy - Ammonia-based clean energy
Anovion Battery - Synthetic graphite for batteries
ArcelorMittal XCarb - Green steel
Bleximo - Quantum computing hardware
Carbon Robotics - Autonomous weeding robots
Commonwealth Fusion Systems - Fusion energy
Desktop Metal - Metal 3D printing
Energy Vault - Gravity-based energy storage
Fictiv - On-demand manufacturing
Forge Nano - Advanced battery materials
Fortera - Low-carbon cement
Gecko Robotics - Industrial inspection robots
IonQ - Trapped ion quantum computers
Joby Aviation - Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL)
Lilium - Electric jet aircraft
Lightmatter - Photonic computing
Redwood Materials - Battery recycling
RocketStar - Advanced propulsion
Verdant Robotics - Precision agriculture robotics
Figure AI - Humanoid Robot