40. Saronic

Founders: Dino Mavrookas (CEO), Rob Lehman, Vibhav Altekar, Doug Lambert
Launched: 2022
Headquarters: Austin, Texas
Funding: $2.6 billion
Valuation: $9.25 billion
Key Technologies: Artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, robotics
Industry: Defense
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 1 (No. 19 in 2025)

It's not every startup that can buy a shipyard, but Saronic is not your usual one.  

The autonomous ship maker that is working with the Navy and has recently gotten into the commercial maritime sector has acquired a former shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana, near Baton Rouge. Saronic is revamping and expanding the shipyard with a $300 million investment to build autonomous vessels. The buildout over the next year is expected to create 1,500 new jobs.    

Its Port Alpha project is intended to be even bigger, with the company planning to spend billions of dollars on a next-generation shipbuilding facility, though it has yet to reveal a location.

As the four-year-old company has progressed from prototypes to production, industry analysts are forecasting high year-over-year growth potential.

Corsair, the company's 24-foot fully autonomous speedboat is "in full-rate production," CEO and co-founder Dino Mavrookas said in an interview on CNBC's "Morning Call" on May 21. "We're delivering hundreds of units, and we could build thousands per year if called upon right now."

Another milestone was completing the hull of its first autonomous ship, the 180-foot Marauder, in September 2025. 

"We started building that ship about this time last year and we are nearing completion. It's the fastest ship-build in this country since World War II," he said.

It's widely acknowledged that American shipbuilding has been in decline and needs to be revitalized to have any chance of measuring up to China, which now has a vast lead. The U.S. owns a small fraction of shipbuilding globally and suffers from aging vessels and infrastructure at a time of multiple geopolitical conflicts. Based in Austin, Texas, Saronic intends to underscore a homegrown advantage and unlock new U.S. shipbuilding capacity.  

Last February, Saronic pulled in a $600 million investment that valued it at $4 billion from tech investor Elad Gil, General Catalyst and other Sand Hill Road venture capitalists. Then in March of this year, the startup raised $1.75 billion in a round led by Kleiner Perkins, which more than doubled its valuation to $9.25 billion. Silicon Valley has been investing heavily in defense tech startups including fellow Disruptors Anduril and Shield AI that can competitively push, though also at times work with, legacy defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin.  

Saronic recently partnered with Nvidia in an extended R&D capacity to apply its AI chips and computing platform to speed up, automate and streamline the way vessels are designed and operated. Likewise, it teamed up last year with Palantir to integrate its advanced software to strengthen manufacturing of autonomous surface vessels for the Navy. In a breakout major production deal, Saronic was awarded a $392 million, multi-year contract in late 2025 from the Navy to build autonomous maritime drones.  

Its leadership team includes founders with backgrounds in Navy SEAL teams, Marine Corps operations, and advanced autonomy. It recently expanded its headquarters in Austin with additional office, manufacturing and production space to support the stated goal of Mavrookas to bring shipbuilding back to the U.S. in a way not seen since World War II. 

Mavrookas told CNBC while much of the focus is on military projects, every project is built with a dual-use mindset from day one. "Dual use is core to our thesis," he said. "Every product is commercial-first and that's what the Secretary of War is calling for; it is commercial-first solutions that can serve the Department of War."

Port Alpha is being designed to build large commercial ships — 600-foot, 800-foot, 1000-foot cargo container ships, tankers, and roll-on/roll-off cargo vessels. Bringing commercial shipbuilding back to the U.S. is critical for the creation of resilient supply chains that can take advantage of economies of scale and ultimately drive down costs for the Pentagon, Mavrookas said. Without success as a dual-use builder, "You can't resupply forces in times of conflict," he said.