GrayMatter Robotics, a US-based, Bangladeshi-founded robotics company , has signed a long-term, performance-based production agreement with HII (NYSE: HII), America's largest military shipbuilder, putting a Bangladeshi-founded company inside one of the most sensitive manufacturing environments in the U.S. defense industrial base. 

Under the agreement, announced August 6, 2026, HII intends to award up to US$900Mn in shipbuilding work over seven years, split between GrayMatter and fellow HYPR-program company Path Robotics in a ratio neither company has disclosed, and contingent on both companies meeting defined technology and manufacturing readiness milestones. The agreement, part of HII's High-Yield Production Robotics (HYPR) program, covers fabrication processes across aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, amphibious ships, future frigates, and unmanned surface vessels.

Headquartered in Carson, California, GrayMatter Robotics was founded in 2020 by Ariyan Kabir, a graduate of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), who serves as Co-founder and CEO. ExitStack has covered the company since its US$45Mn Series B round led by Wellington Management in 2024. The HII agreement marks its largest publicly disclosed commercial commitment to date and its entry into U.S. Navy shipbuilding, one of the most complex and tightly regulated manufacturing environments in the country.

GrayMatter builds what it calls Factory SuperIntelligence, a Physical AI system deployed as autonomous factories for high-mix, high-variability manufacturing tasks. Its technology handles surface preparation, coating, and inspection processes, work that traditional automation has struggled to perform because it varies constantly in shape, material, and condition from one part to the next. Under the HYPR agreement, GrayMatter and Path Robotics will first partner with HII in a development stage to validate and qualify autonomous welding, grinding, blasting, painting, assembly, and inspection techniques to Navy-grade standards. In a subsequent delivery stage, HII will begin sourcing shipbuilding work through the resulting autonomous production line, starting with small steel structures and expanding to larger units and modules as performance milestones are met.

The HYPR agreement is the clearest signal yet that GrayMatter, a five-year-old, Bangladeshi-founded robotics company, can operate inside Navy-grade manufacturing at the same table as Path Robotics, a more established defense-adjacent player that has raised over US$370Mn since 2018.

"This agreement represents an important milestone in bringing Factory SuperIntelligence to America's leading shipbuilding company," said Ariyan Kabir, Co-founder and CEO of GrayMatter Robotics. "By combining Physical AI with autonomous production systems, we're helping create manufacturing that learns, adapts, and improves over time, making complex shipbuilding faster, more resilient, and more scalable. Together with HII and Path Robotics, we're laying the foundation for the next generation of American industrial capability and helping ensure that the United States can build critical assets at the speed and scale our national security demands."

Eric Chewning, executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at HII, described the collaboration as "a strategic investment in the future of American shipbuilding, strengthening industrial base resilience, expanding distributed shipbuilding capacity, and unlocking new production efficiencies essential to delivering the Navy's growing fleet."