Tech news in 3 minutes
Ethan Thornton is trying to do everything all at once
Ethan Thornton dropped out of MIT at 19 to build weapons. His first hydrogen-powered prototype, made with parts from Home Depot and Amazon, failed. Now 22, his company Mach Industries runs six weapons programs and recently closed a $300 million Series C at a $1.8 billion valuation, raising about $485 million total. Thornton grew up in Burnet, Texas, in a military family. Concerned about China's rise and a potential great-power conflict, he concluded unmanned systems would redefine warfare, and the U.S. was moving too slowly. Midway through 2026, Mach operates six simultaneous programs: a vertical-takeoff strike aircraft, a long-range anti-ship missile, two stratospheric systems, a cheap surface-to-air interceptor for drones, and—announced this week—a 40-foot Navy logistics-and-strike aircraft that flies over 1,000 miles with a 1,000-pound payload. None is in full-rate production yet. Thornton says Mach has won about 13 government contracts, mostly in middle-stage procurement. He expects operational deployment of several systems by year-end, aiming to push three into rate manufacturing—meaning hundreds of thousands of units monthly. Thornton argues the U.S. cannot out-manufacture China but can out-create it, emphasizing first-mover advantage. Mach's approach includes building its own supply chain: it built and fired two jet engines from scratch in eight months and acquired solid rocket motor company Exquadrum for $50 million. Component sales now account for about half of Mach's revenue. Compared to peers like Shield AI and Saronic, which focus on single platforms, Mach's diffuse strategy invites scrutiny. Thornton likens it to Anduril but says Mach is "bottom-up" from hardware, while Anduril is "top-down" from software. Anduril remains far larger, but Thornton insists the field is not zero-sum given the scale of need. Thornton acknowledges the hardest part of running Mach changes every six months—now manufacturing at scale. He protects time for strategic thinking and values aggressive feedback from employees during company-wide forums.