TerraFirma

TerraFirma is an Austin-based construction company that retrofits heavy equipment like excavators, bulldozers, skid steers, loaders, graders, and rollers to run autonomously, remotely, or traditionally . The team uses this fleet to perform mass excavation, land clearing, foundations, grading, grubbing, and site demolition , operating as a vertically integrated contractor rather than selling software to incumbents. The company uses a combination of interfaces, including Xbox controllers, to remotely operate construction equipment , and layers in automatic person detection and obstacle avoidance on top. The launch marks the company's exit from stealth alongside a $115 million round, including a $100 million Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and angel investors connected to SpaceX, Anduril, and Hadrian. For a directory audience, the notable signal is that a construction firm raised at frontier-tech multiples by combining its own crews with retrofitted machinery, positioning itself against the labor shortages and cost overruns that slow US infrastructure work. TerraFirma was founded in 2024 by former SpaceX engineers Noah Schochet and Noah McGuinness, who met at Princeton before working on Starlink and Starship programs. Their stated long arc extends past earthworks on Earth toward robotic earthworks that could eventually support infrastructure on the Moon and Mars, though the immediate business is job sites in Texas, with a recent project including site excavation for a new Starbucks in North Austin .