We help you prototype in days — and scale to the world.
ShockwaveLabs is a venture firm for the industrial era of AI. We back deep-tech and advanced-manufacturing founders — and hand them X-Wave, our in-house rapid-prototyping foundry.
We're living through an intelligence explosion. Artificial Intelligence has made ideas abundant and nearly free — it can refine a rough mental model into a polished design in seconds. But a design is still just structured information on a computer or in the mind. The hard part is no longer thinking; it's making — turning that polished idea into something physical you can hold, test, and ship. That is the gap ShockwaveLabs closes: we back founders with capital and hand them X-Wave, our rapid-prototyping foundry, to forge ideas into real, working hardware — and the network to scale it.
Cognition is being commoditized. Software is largely solved — the new frontier is physical: atoms, machines, and the factories that make them.
As AI compounds on itself, viable ideas multiply faster than anyone can build them. Invention is no longer the constraint — execution is.
Through X-Wave, our rapid-prototyping foundry, we collapse the distance between a concept and a working part — turning thought into thing in days, not quarters.
Conviction capital, operating muscle, and a manufacturing network to carry you from first prototype all the way to production scale.
Grid-scale clean energy systems for industrial baseload power.
Electric and chemical propulsion for launch and in-space mobility.
Custom silicon and adaptive compute that model the physical world.
Aerospace structures and high-pressure systems built for extremes.
High-density solid-state cells for industrial and grid storage.
Defect-free monocrystalline silicon for next-gen chips and cells.
Self-optimizing control systems that retrofit any production line.
Low-latency satellite mesh for industrial IoT and logistics.
Compact desktop robots automating lab and light-assembly work.
Integrated electric drivetrains for autonomous heavy vehicles.
Molecular recycling that returns mixed waste to virgin-grade feedstock.
Perception models that catch micro-defects before they ship.
Force-aware robotic arms for precision assembly and finishing.
Frontier R&D translating breakthrough science into manufacturable hardware.
High-tensile engineered materials for extreme-load structures.
Smart hardware and controls modernizing the grid for distributed power.
Our advanced rapid-prototyping center: 40,000 sq m, eighteen wings, one roof — machining and additive, electronics and cleanroom microfab, chemistry and metallurgy, genomics and bio-fabrication, imaging, robotics, and on-prem AI compute — staffed by engineers, open to every company we back and to outside teams who need it. Walk in with a CAD file. Walk out with a working part.
Select any machine for full specifications →
Metal and polymer 3D printing for functional prototypes and low-volume production.
5-axis, mill-turn, Swiss, and large-format machining — plus EDM and ultra-precision diamond turning — across metals and engineering plastics.
Cutting, punching, and forming for enclosures, brackets, and structural sheet parts.
PCB fab, reflow, and bring-up — get from schematic to a powered board same day.
CT scanning, CMM, and optical inspection to validate every dimension and tolerance.
Layup, cure, and casting for next-gen materials and short-run tooling at prototype scale.
Functional and cosmetic finishing, coating, and heat treatment to spec.
On-staff mechanical and electrical engineers to refine DFM alongside your team.
Short- and long-read DNA/RNA sequencing and library prep for synthetic biology and bio-manufacturing.
Wet-lab automation, analysis, and bio-fabrication for cells, proteins, and engineered biomaterials.
Next-generation magnetic resonance imaging — from ultra-high-field research magnets to portable point-of-care systems.
Actuator manufacturing and a whole-body test lab for legged robots, humanoids, and advanced automation.
On-prem AI compute, simulation, and an autonomy test range — the digital foundry behind physical AI.
A full synthesis and process-chemistry lab — from first reaction at the bench to continuous-flow scale-up.
The analytical core — identify any molecule, material, or element from its spectral fingerprint.
Melt, heat-treat, and test metals — from custom alloys to the microstructure and mechanical properties that define them.
ISO-class cleanrooms and a full micro/nano-fab line — lithography, deposition, and etch for chips, MEMS, photonics, and microfluidics.
Vacuum chambers and heat-treatment chambers — from space-grade thermal-vacuum testing to brazing, curing, and environmental cycling.
Every ShockwaveLabs company gets priority, hands-on access to the entire floor — included, no queue, no outsourcing.
X-Wave is open beyond our portfolio. Bring cross-disciplinary R&D that spans more fields than any one lab — or book time on a high-end machine you don't have in-house, with the engineers who run it.
Sponsor any machine on the floor and earn usage credits redeemable across the entire lab. Fund the equipment you care about — and get flexible access to everything else on the floor.
A prototype is one unit; a product is ten thousand. When you're ready to scale, we plug you into the industry — finding the suppliers and contract manufacturers who can mass-produce the exact part you need, from a high-precision screw to a custom casting, so you can ship at volume.
We also help a new generation of product designers and developers find the unique customers their products are made for — matching what you make to the people, communities, and markets that need it.
Our metrology and measurement floor is curated to an exacting standard — so X-Wave also offers calibration and certification as a service to outside customers, with traceable, documented results on demand.
We lead or co-lead, write fast, and back conviction with operating support — not just a wire.
Founders plug into X-Wave to slash iteration cycles from quarters to days.
We open our manufacturing network to move from prototype to repeatable production.
Wins recirculate — talent, suppliers, and learnings shared across the whole portfolio.
If you can build anything…
If you're a founder turning hard science into hardware, we want to see it. Send us the deck, the demo, or just the napkin sketch.
Not a founder? Companies can partner with X-Wave for cross-disciplinary R&D and machine time, sponsor a machine for lab-wide usage credits, or use our accredited calibration & certification services.