1872 raises $15 million to automate steel welding for AI data centers
Three engineers who once helped build rocket engines for SpaceX raised $15 million to open an automated steel-fabrication plant in Cincinnati.
Startup 1872 held a ribbon-cutting at its Factory One site on July 22, 2026. Its purpose is to provide steel components for AI data centers and small nuclear reactors.
Raptor team turns to steel skids
The three founders, Dan Summers, Brian Mongilio, and Michael Grant, all worked at SpaceX. Summers, now CEO of 1872, led the team that integrated and fabricated the Raptor engines that powered the Super Heavy booster for the Starship launch system.
He said the Raptor team paired software engineers with hardware engineers to build not just the engine but the system that made it.
That approach, he said, got Raptor from a first full-scale concept to production in three years compared with a jet-engine development cycle that he said can run past two decades.
1872 produces steel skids, which are the rectangular frames that act as a moveable base for modular buildings.
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