A16Z American Dynamism is using this launch to preview three portfolio companies working on the physical foundations of American industrial and defense capacity: Ulysses, Mariana Minerals, and Radiant. The teaser points to forthcoming content and public rollouts from each, aimed at founders, operators, and investors tracking dual-use hard tech.
Ulysses is building a small, autonomous underwater vehicle designed to outperform the primes at a fraction of the cost, founded by Akhil, Will, Colm, and Jamie, who came from Ireland after cutting their teeth building drones there. The platform is modular, letting operators add batteries, propellers, GPU modules, or mil-spec hardware through standardized ports depending on the mission, and the Department of War has come to Ulysses for solutions, with a vertically integrated manufacturing facility and fresh Series A capital to scale. Mariana Minerals is a systems company building the software layer that brings real-time intelligence to mining, spanning capital project delivery, mining operations, and chemical refining. Three sites covering lithium, copper, and nickel are already under development in the United States, with the first refined product projected to be delivered by year's end. CEO Turner Caldwell previously led Tesla's metals and minerals team, CTO Juan Lozano scaled ML systems at Affirm and Kite, and CFO Baker Tilney founded an integrated energy company later sold to Vitol. Radiant, founded in 2020 by former SpaceX engineer Doug Bernauer, is developing portable nuclear microreactors intended to replace diesel generators in remote and off-grid settings.
For a directory audience, the through line is what a16z's American Dynamism practice has been arguing for years, that undersea autonomy, critical mineral supply, and distributed power generation are the constraints on Western industrial and military capacity. Watching how these three companies ship, contract, and hire in the coming weeks is a useful lens on where the thesis is actually converting into revenue and deployed hardware.
Comments (13)
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T
Tomasz WronaJul 17, 2026
Three teaser logos and a coming soon card is a bold amount of confidence for a Tuesday. Respect the restraint though, most firms would have shipped a 4 minute sizzle reel.
R
Rohan IyerJul 17, 2026
Naive question but why drop three at once instead of stretching them across three weeks. Feels like you just buried two of your own launches.
P
Priya KothariJul 17, 2026
Cool names, but what are the retention curves on a mining company. Asking for a friend who wants to hear about unit economics before saying 'interesting.'
M
Magnus OdegardJul 17, 2026
The cut between the Radiant frame and the Mariana shot is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Whoever edited this understood the assignment of 'say nothing but make it feel like Christopher Nolan.'
M
Meredith SallowJul 17, 2026
The thumbnail slaps but the tweet copy is doing the absolute minimum. Three periods do not a narrative make.
C
Chidi OkonkwoJul 17, 2026
Ulysses. Mariana Minerals. Radiant. That reads like the villain lineup in a Tom Clancy novel and honestly I am here for it.
C
Cole HanleyJul 17, 2026
You could have literally added 'more soon' at the end and it would have felt like a whole roadmap. Missed opportunity for one bonus vibe.
Y
Yesenia DelacruzJul 17, 2026
Rewrote the tagline for free: 'Three companies. One country. Zero excuses.' You can venmo me later.
K
Kenji WatanabeJul 17, 2026
Any of these three going to have public docs or is dual-use code just a vibe now. Asking as someone who reads readmes for fun.
B
Beatrice AlmqvistJul 17, 2026
A minerals company, a nuclear-adjacent play, and whatever Ulysses is walk into a bar. The bar is called capex and it does not have happy hour.
A
Anselm BauerJul 17, 2026
Waiting for one of these three to quietly launch a token for 'resource provenance.' You know it's coming, don't lie to me.
S
Sanjay RammohanJul 17, 2026
Every 'coming soon' defense reveal is a Potemkin factory until I see something bend metal. Show me the swarf or it didn't happen.
F
Farida El-SayedJul 17, 2026
The indie hacker in me wants to know the team size on each of these. If Radiant is under 40 people I owe someone a beer.
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Ulysses. Mariana Minerals. Radiant. Coming soon
Ulysses. Mariana Minerals. Radiant. Coming soon
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A16Z American Dynamism is using this launch to preview three portfolio companies working on the physical foundations of American industrial and defense capacity: Ulysses, Mariana Minerals, and Radiant. The teaser points to forthcoming content and public rollouts from each, aimed at founders, operators, and investors tracking dual-use hard tech. Ulysses is building a small, autonomous underwater vehicle designed to outperform the primes at a fraction of the cost, founded by Akhil, Will, Colm, and Jamie, who came from Ireland after cutting their teeth building drones there. The platform is modular, letting operators add batteries, propellers, GPU modules, or mil-spec hardware through standardized ports depending on the mission, and the Department of War has come to Ulysses for solutions, with a vertically integrated manufacturing facility and fresh Series A capital to scale. Mariana Minerals is a systems company building the software layer that brings real-time intelligence to mining, spanning capital project delivery, mining operations, and chemical refining. Three sites covering lithium, copper, and nickel are already under development in the United States, with the first refined product projected to be delivered by year's end. CEO Turner Caldwell previously led Tesla's metals and minerals team, CTO Juan Lozano scaled ML systems at Affirm and Kite, and CFO Baker Tilney founded an integrated energy company later sold to Vitol. Radiant, founded in 2020 by former SpaceX engineer Doug Bernauer, is developing portable nuclear microreactors intended to replace diesel generators in remote and off-grid settings. For a directory audience, the through line is what a16z's American Dynamism practice has been arguing for years, that undersea autonomy, critical mineral supply, and distributed power generation are the constraints on Western industrial and military capacity. Watching how these three companies ship, contract, and hire in the coming weeks is a useful lens on where the thesis is actually converting into revenue and deployed hardware.
Comments (13)
Three teaser logos and a coming soon card is a bold amount of confidence for a Tuesday. Respect the restraint though, most firms would have shipped a 4 minute sizzle reel.
Naive question but why drop three at once instead of stretching them across three weeks. Feels like you just buried two of your own launches.
Cool names, but what are the retention curves on a mining company. Asking for a friend who wants to hear about unit economics before saying 'interesting.'
The cut between the Radiant frame and the Mariana shot is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Whoever edited this understood the assignment of 'say nothing but make it feel like Christopher Nolan.'
The thumbnail slaps but the tweet copy is doing the absolute minimum. Three periods do not a narrative make.
Ulysses. Mariana Minerals. Radiant. That reads like the villain lineup in a Tom Clancy novel and honestly I am here for it.
You could have literally added 'more soon' at the end and it would have felt like a whole roadmap. Missed opportunity for one bonus vibe.
Rewrote the tagline for free: 'Three companies. One country. Zero excuses.' You can venmo me later.
Any of these three going to have public docs or is dual-use code just a vibe now. Asking as someone who reads readmes for fun.
A minerals company, a nuclear-adjacent play, and whatever Ulysses is walk into a bar. The bar is called capex and it does not have happy hour.
Waiting for one of these three to quietly launch a token for 'resource provenance.' You know it's coming, don't lie to me.
Every 'coming soon' defense reveal is a Potemkin factory until I see something bend metal. Show me the swarf or it didn't happen.
The indie hacker in me wants to know the team size on each of these. If Radiant is under 40 people I owe someone a beer.