Defense manufacturer Mach Industries says its $50 million purchase of rocket propulsion firm Exquadrum in Victorville “strengthens the American edge” for the military.
Chief Executive Ethan Thornton, now 22, started Mach Industries as a teenager in 2023 to develop and manufacture airborne weapons, including the Viper attack drone.
The company said it purchased Exquadrum in the cash-and-equity deal to expand its defense capabilities.
“Bringing Exquadrum’s propulsion expertise into Mach gives us direct control over one of the most critical elements of unmanned systems performance,” Thornton said when the purchase was announced on May 19.
Mach is one of several OC companies seeking to disrupt the staid Pentagon equipment procurement with more tech-driven, unmanned offerings. They include Palmer Luckey’s 9-year-old Anduril Industries in nearby Costa Mesa and drone-maker Dzyne in Irvine.
College Dropout Founder
Thornton was a 19-year-old dropout from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he founded Mach Industries (see page 82). So far, Mach has raised $200 million in financing.
The goals of the Exquadrum purchase include addressing mission-critical shortages across the defense industrial base of solid rocket motors as well as testing propulsion, explosives and “hypergolic propellants” used in spacecraft and rockets.
Mach has also been developing other weapons including the Pike drone and the Glide attack glider, with an emphasis on manufacturing.
Scaling production across Mach’s five all vehicle systems while accelerating the development and delivery of future platforms
The work will also involve a piece of President Trump’s proposed missile defense network known as Golden Dome.
“Mach inherits the subcontracting work on Golden Dome that Exquadrum was delivering,” the spokesperson said. The company’s work includes liquid propulsion testing and solid rocket motors.
Mach Team Growing
“We are growing our team in Huntington Beach and in Victorville,” the Mach Industries spokesperson said, emphasizing Mach’s hunt for new talent.
The company currently has 350 employees. Mach had more than 70 positions posted on its website as of May 20, ranging from field drone technician to flight software engineer and senior legal counsel. After moving from Texas just two years ago, Mach invested in Southern California’s deep defense and aerospace talent base.
Exquadrum – now rebranded as Mach Energetics — further strengthens and unifies that manufacturing integration, the company said.
To help the company’s expansion, Mach received a large tax abatement from the state of California that was announced earlier in May.
“California has been great to us and we are excited to continue to grow in Orange County,” the spokesperson said.
Mach Industries’ investors include heavyweights Khosla Ventures, Bedrock Capital and Sequoia Capital.
Mach’s customers include the U.S. Army, Air Force and the Special Operations Command – as well as allied governments.
The company is working in a 115,000-square foot facility in Huntington Beach.
Wunderkind College Dropout Ethan Thornton Has ‘Old Soul’
Ever since he burst into the defense scene in 2023, conversations about Mach Industries founder and CEO Ethan Thornton have often focused on the fact that he dropped out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It’s true, just as it’s true that Anduril Industries co-founder Palmer Luckey is also a dropout.
Both have built up fearsome companies.
Thornton has the backing of key venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital. In the latest move, the 22-year-old has acquired Exquadrum of Victorville.
Two years ago, Thornton told the Business Journal that investors and customers aren’t bothered by his young age.
“The customer just cares about the technology.”
And the same goes for investors, he said.
The Wall Street Journal, in an article last week, noted that Thornton is younger than Exquadrum, which was formed 24 years ago.
“In a lot of ways, (Thornton) is an old soul, you know,” Exquadrum co-founder Eric Schmidt told the Journal.
-Kevin Costelloe
Palmer Luckey: Missile Boom Coming
Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Costa Mesa-based Anduril Industries, says a boom in missile construction is coming.
“America will manufacture more cruise missiles in the next three years than the last 30 years combined, at a fraction of the cost,” Luckey said May 20 in a post on the X platform.
Luckey said the United States has built fewer than 40,000 cruise missiles ever since the Army asked the Dayton-Wright Company to manufacture an Aerial Torpedo in 1917.
“Many people don’t understand the scale” of missile construction that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is demanding, Luckey said.
Pentagon officials are “giving a clear demand signal that is bringing billions of dollars of private capital into solving this problem,” he added.
Earlier this month, Anduril raised $5 billion in its Series H Round, helping the nine-year-old company double its valuation to $61 billion.
Anduril is currently building a $2 billion complex called Arsenal-1 in Ohio to make missiles called Barracuda and other products.
Anduril is building three variants of Barracuda that can fly distances anywhere from 100 miles to more than 500 miles. Anduril is emphasizing manufacturing simplicity, where 1000s of missiles can be built more quickly in high-volume production than traditional cruise missiles.
Christian Brose, Anduril president and chief strategy officer, told Fox Business last week that the company has signed a deal with the Pentagon to build about 1,000 missiles a year for the next three years.
“We are in the middle of hiring for Barracuda production at Arsenal-1 starting later this year. Please hit us up if this mission is one you can be passionate about,” Luckey said in his post.
—Peter J. Brennan
