Joby, Dirac & Allen Control: The Future of Air, AI Factories & Defense Tech

Joby Aviation Capital & Operations

• Toyota Motor Corporation announced a $500 million investment in new funding for Joby Aviation.
• Joby is doubling manufacturing capacity at its pilot site in Marina, California, and opening a new building to support "made-in-America" production.
• The company is expanding operations to Ohio, refurbishing a facility to train California employees and produce certified aircraft parts.
• Joby has commercial partnerships with Uber and Delta to integrate air taxi services into existing consumer-facing ride-hailing and travel platforms.
• Dubai has selected Joby to be its official air taxi provider upon launch, following successful high-temperature stress tests (43°C/110°F) and humidity trials in the UAE desert.
• Joby raised a $400–$500 million Series C round led by Toyota in 2020, followed by a SPAC merger in 2021 with Reinvent to secure capital for its capital-intensive, vertically integrated business model.
• The company is currently in an intensive FAA certification process involving the definition of design rules and witnessing of tests to prove compliance.
• Joby's eVTOL aircraft are designed to operate with near-silent acoustics, producing a "whisper" at 1,500 feet to enable integration into urban communities without the noise restrictions associated with helicopters.
• The proposed consumer model involves a multi-modal "Car-Joby-Car" or "Car-Joby-Walk" experience, utilizing "vertiports" for drop-offs and pick-ups to avoid traffic congestion.
• Joby is leveraging AI to automate enterprise tasks and build a robust internal data foundation, using Databricks to process gigabytes of flight and manufacturing data for real-time engineering dashboards.

Dirac: Automated Work Instructions

• Dirac is developing "Build OS," the first automated work instruction platform that converts CAD files into 3D animated assembly instructions.
• The software automates 80–90% of the work instruction creation process, reducing production planning time from months to hours or days.
• Dirac's mission addresses the loss of tribal knowledge as experienced manufacturing workers retire, ensuring new employees can maintain quality without relying on undocumented expert intuition.
• The platform is ITAR-compliant and targets mid-market OEMs and suppliers in aerospace, defense, automotive, agriculture, and construction.
• Dirac recently relaunched its product in April and has moved its headquarters to the 47th floor of the Empire State Building.
• Philip Ehrenstein notes that while some manufacturers face demand issues due to offshoring, many are struggling with supply chain fragmentation and declining quality as the industrial base ages.
• Dirac aggregates tribal knowledge to create structured data layers, which are then used to effectively apply LLMs and AI to manufacturing contexts.

Allen Control Systems: Defense & Drone Warfare

• Allen Control Systems is building "Bullfrog," a vertically integrated AI machine gun turret designed to neutralize drone threats and other targets.
• The company raised $43 million in funding, led by Craft Ventures and Inspired Capital, to support its capital-intensive hardware development.
• Founder Steve founded the company after selling his previous startup to DoorDash, observing early in the Ukraine conflict that electronic warfare and microwave countermeasures would not sustainably defend against future AI-enabled drone swarms.
• Bullfrog is a fully stacked turret that manufactures its own power electronics, PCBs, and steel components in-house to ensure high precision and reliability.
• The system is currently being deployed and tested with US military assets, with a focus on hitting drones traveling laterally at high speeds with minimal ammunition.
• Allen Control Systems employs 52 people in Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C., citing the mission of building "the greatest weapon system in American history" as a primary recruitment tool.
• The company plans to scale manufacturing in Alabama near Huntsville to bring machining jobs back to the US and reduce reliance on foreign supply chains.
• The company's strategy relies on kinetic solutions and precision robotics rather than generative AI models, arguing that current AGI capabilities are not yet reliable enough for autonomous battlefield control.

Broader Industry Trends & Observations

• Reindustrialize 2024 in Detroit is characterized by a sense of urgency regarding the degradation of the US industrial base, with attendees focusing on reversing offshoring trends.
• A significant challenge identified is the "TikTok generation" of new talent, which is perceived as lacking the work ethic or interest required for traditional manufacturing roles compared to retiring veterans.
• There is a growing consensus that the US industrial base faces a critical risk of collapse if not revitalized, with a specific focus on mid-market manufacturers that lack the capital of large OEMs.
• The defense sector is shifting toward "robot-on-robot" warfare, anticipating a future where economic competition for drone production volume drives conflict dynamics.
• Political factors, including tariffs and the "reindustrialization" movement, are creating a favorable environment for domestic manufacturing startups despite lingering skepticism about market demand.
• Companies are increasingly adopting "vertical integration" not just for hardware, but for software and customer-facing platforms to maintain control over the entire value chain.
• Air taxis and eVTOLs are positioning noise reduction as a primary differentiator against traditional helicopters to overcome community acceptance barriers.