TerraFirma, an Austin-based tech-enabled, vertically integrated construction company founded by former SpaceX engineers, 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 SpaceX, Anduril, Base Power, Shinkei, and Hadrian. The funding will support the expansion of TerraFirma’s engineering, manufacturing, operations, and construction teams, and the continued development of its semi-autonomous heavy equipment systems.
The company was founded in 2024 by Noah Schochet and Noah McGuinness, who met at Princeton and subsequently worked together at SpaceX on programs including Starlink, Starshield and Starship. Their experience building complex physical systems at SpaceX—where hardware, software and operations are developed together in rapid iteration—directly shapes TerraFirma’s approach to construction robotics. At SpaceX, they observed how tightly integrated development cycles could dramatically accelerate the deployment of sophisticated physical infrastructure; they are now applying that philosophy to earthworks and site operations.
TerraFirma’s platform addresses a structural problem in the US construction industry: since 1965, labor productivity in construction has declined at an average rate of 0.6% per year, while productivity across the broader economy has grown at roughly 1.6% annually. This divergence has cost roughly $1 trillion over the past five years in delayed housing, deferred infrastructure, and constrained workforce capacity. At the same time, demand for construction has never been greater, with America requiring more homes, factories, and energy infrastructure, while government and commercial clients increasingly need projects delivered faster and in more challenging environments.
TerraFirma’s answer is a full-stack platform that combines AI-enabled pre-construction software, a remote command-and-control center, and retrofitted, semi-autonomous heavy machinery—excavators, dozers, loaders, rollers, skid steers, and more — converted into robots that no longer require an operator in the cab. Skilled operators instead orchestrate entire fleets from screens, applying the judgment and intuition built over years of field experience across multiple machines simultaneously. The system is designed to make each operator up to 300% more effective, accelerating project timelines, reducing costs, and creating higher-paying, safer jobs than operating traditional equipment. Crucially, TerraFirma builds and operates its own robotic systems in the field rather than selling hardware to third parties, giving it direct feedback loops from real commercial projects that inform rapid technology iteration.
Current 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 residential power delivery. The company is also working with the US government to execute mission-critical international infrastructure and logistics projects in some of the world’s most demanding operating environments. These engagements span housing, energy, transportation, manufacturing and education sectors and validate the commercial model before TerraFirma scales further.
The long-term vision is explicitly extraterrestrial. As Moon and Mars settlement moves from concept toward reality, TerraFirma positions the construction technology it is developing on Earth as foundational to off-planet infrastructure. The company’s stated ambition is to become the largest construction company in the solar system, a goal grounded in the belief that the same robotics and software stack designed to operate in remote or hazardous terrestrial environments will translate directly to the demands of construction beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
KEY QUOTES:
“Construction is the foundation everything else is built on, and it’s been going backward for fifty years. 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.”
Noah Schochet, CEO and Co-Founder, TerraFirma
“It is not about trying to fully automate construction equipment. 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.”
Noah McGuinness, CTO and Co-Founder, TerraFirma
“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.”
Josh Coyne, Partner, Kleiner Perkins
