Former SpaceX engineers are developing semi-autonomous construction robotics to make infrastructure faster, cheaper, and safer on Earth, the Moon, and Mars

AUSTIN, Texas: TerraFirma, a tech-enabled, vertically integrated construction company focused on critical infrastructure, today announced it has raised approximately $115 million, including a $100 million Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, BANNER VC, Saga Ventures, Trust Ventures, Definition, PEAK6, Magnetar Capital, and Ravelin Capital. Angel investors include founders, executives, and engineers from companies including SpaceX, Anduril, Base Power, Shinkei, and Hadrian.

The funding will support the expansion of TerraFirma’s engineering, manufacturing, operations, and construction teams, as well as the continued development of its semi-autonomous heavy equipment systems.

America is quite literally built on physical infrastructure, from roads to power grids to homes, factories, and hospitals. These are the foundations of civilization. Yet construction is one of the only major industries where productivity has gone backward. Since 1965, labor productivity in US construction has fallen at an average rate of 0.6% per year, while productivity across the broader economy has grown at roughly 1.6% annually. This productivity collapse has cost the equivalent of roughly $1 trillion every five years, a staggering price paid in delayed housing, deferred infrastructure, and a workforce that has been squeezed for decades to deliver more without the tools and support it deserves.

Simultaneously, the demands now being placed on construction have never been greater. America needs more homes, more factories, and more energy infrastructure than ever before. Meanwhile, humanity’s ambitions continue to stretch beyond the atmosphere, with building on the Moon and Mars moving from concept to reality.

“Construction is the foundation everything else is built on, and it’s been going backward for fifty years,” said Noah Schochet, CEO and co-founder of TerraFirma. “America built the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system, and the Hoover Dam. There's no reason we can’t build at that scale again, and there’s no first-principles reason construction can’t become 10x faster, cheaper, and safer. TerraFirma exists to help America build again and then take that capacity into the cosmos.”

TerraFirma is building the robotic infrastructure stack for modern construction. The company’s full-stack platform combines AI-enabled pre-construction software, a remote command-and-control center, and retrofitted semi-autonomous heavy machinery, including excavators, dozers, loaders, rollers, skid steers, and more, converted into robots that no longer require an operator in the cab. Instead, skilled operators orchestrate entire fleets from screens, using the same intuition and judgment they’ve built over years, now extended across multiple machines at once. The result is a system that can make each operator up to 300% more effective, accelerating project execution, reducing costs, and creating jobs that are safer and higher-paying than traditional equipment operation.

“It is not about trying to fully automate construction equipment,” said Noah McGuinness, CTO of TerraFirma. “Making construction truly faster and cheaper requires innovating on operations and technology together across the full stack. We believe autonomy is a part of the solution, but driving real change requires building a whole ecosystem of technology that is directly informed by rapid iteration and lessons from the field.”

TerraFirma was founded in 2024 by former SpaceX engineers Noah Schochet and Noah McGuinness, who met at Princeton before working on programs including Starlink, Starshield, and Starship. At SpaceX, they saw how quickly complex physical systems could be designed, built, and deployed when hardware, software, and operations were developed together.

TerraFirma is currently working on projects across the housing, energy, transportation, manufacturing, and education sectors. Recent commercial projects include site preparation, excavation, and grading for a new Starbucks in North Austin, a sports arena in Spicewood, and a power substation in New Braunfels supporting power delivery to homes. TerraFirma is also working with the U.S. government to execute mission-critical international infrastructure and logistics projects in some of the world’s most challenging operating environments.

“TerraFirma is succeeding at real-world scale, proving the business model works, and securing government and commercial contracts. This is clearly where the industry is headed,” said Josh Coyne, Partner at Kleiner Perkins.

TerraFirma was built to make construction not just a little bit better, but an order of magnitude better, starting here on Earth. As Mars settlement and space-based infrastructure become increasingly tangible, the construction technology developed to build on Earth will be foundational to what comes next. TerraFirma’s long-term goal is to become the largest construction company in the solar system.

“The technology that we are building today to solve critical challenges here on Earth will be highly reusable to solve those same challenges on the Moon and Mars,” said Noah Schochet.

The company is looking for exceptional engineers and construction professionals who want to build a brighter future by making construction faster, cheaper, and safer. TerraFirma is also looking to hear from customers interested in working with TerraFirma for upcoming large-scale projects. To get in touch, please reach out to connect@terrafirma.inc.

About TerraFirma

TerraFirma is a tech-enabled, vertically integrated construction company initially focused on robotic earthworks and site operations. Founded in 2024 by former SpaceX engineers Noah Schochet and Noah McGuinness, the company builds and uses its own robotics and software in the field, keeping skilled operators at the center while expanding what they can do. TerraFirma is based in Austin, Texas. Learn more at terrafirma.inc.

Fonte: Business Wire