Al Root

The U.S. Navy is turning to an AI-enabled manufacturing start-up to boost shipbuilding capacity.

Hadrian founder Chris Power wants to help reindustrialize America by building modern, automated factories that can help nonspecialized workers become proficient in manufacturing the hardest parts for defense, aerospace, and other industries.

Founded around 2000, the company operates four facilities: two in California that make aerospace parts, and one in Arizona that makes aerospace parts and Navy parts. Factory 4 just opened in Cherokee, Alabama.

Friday, Hadrian announced that Factory 4 would support "the maritime industrial base," supporting the U.S. Navy's Virginia and Columbia-class submarine programs. Two more marine-focused plants are planned for the future for "castings, forgings, and other sequence-critical materials.

Total investment in the facilities will amount to some $2.4 billion, with $900 million coming from the U.S. Navy.

The Columbia class sub, built by General Dynamics, isn't in service yet. So far, 12 boats have been ordered. The first should be in service by 2028.

General Dynamics and Huntington-Ingalls Industries build the Virginia-class subs, and the Navy operates about two dozen vessels.

The agreement with Hadrian is another example of the U.S. military moving aggressively to boost production, while also supporting the domestic industrial base.

This time, one of the beneficiaries is a relatively new, privately held start-up that investors should become familiar with.

"We're super proud to be able to invest alongside the Navy and the Department of War with this massive generational uplift for the Virginia and Columbia-class submarine programs," said Power. "For Hadrian, this is the first of many of these factories-as-a-service partnerships we'll announce with government customers...it's one one-hundredth of what we need to do to help the Navy and the Army, and the Air Force transform through advanced factories."

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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March 20, 2026 14:12 ET (18:12 GMT)

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