Ex-SpaceX engineers open robotic steel factory in Cincinnati on $15 million seed

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.

Summers described them as lower-precision parts than an aerospace component, which leaves more margin for an automated system to get things wrong and still turn out something usable.

The American Welding Society projects that the U.S. will need 320,500 new welding professionals by 2029. This demand is driven by retirements and increasing needs from data centers, chip fabs, and shipyards. Tighter immigration policy under the Trump administration squeezes welding-heavy sectors further.

“The problem that we are trying to solve is, how do we build more things with a decreasing pool of skilled labor to do it with,” Summers said.

1872 is looking to sell its skids to companies building AI data centers or small modular nuclear reactors. Both consume large amounts of fabricated steel.

Robots weld at $0.12 per inch

The welding is the result of a partnership with Columbus-based Path Robotics, whose robotic arms are used for automated arc welding.

Path Robotics says its systems get first-pass yields of 95% to 100%, the percentage of parts that go through inspection without rework or scrap.

Its arms run with the arc on about 70% of the time, versus 10% to 12% for human welders, who spend more of the task positioning and repositioning metal.

Path Robotics puts robotic welding at ~$0.12 per weld inch versus ~$0.78 by hand, an 85% reduction.

Welding a skid runs two to four hours. But assembling the cut components beforehand can eat four to five days, Summers said. “The whole name of the game is how do we keep that machine fed,” he said.

1872 describes a software stack in two parts. An “Architect” system takes a customer’s digital design files and builds a full manufacturing plan, including pricing and material sourcing.

A “Conductor” runs the floor, shuttling material and coordinating robots, which could include self-driving vehicles delivering parts or rail-mounted arms along a production line, Summers said.

He added that 1872 may reach 80% autonomous operation and just stop there if the quest for 100% stops paying off. It hopes to have its prototype factory automating most of the fabrication process by 2027.

1872 said the $15 million round, led through private funds advised by The O.H.I.O. Fund, ranks among the largest seed investments in Ohio history.

The plant sits in Camp Washington’s Spring Grove Avenue industrial corridor, inside the former David Hummel Building Company site, a 1903 structure whose namesake worked on Cincinnati City Hall and Union Terminal.

“Camp Washington has been one of Cincinnati’s most important industrial districts for more than 150 years,” said Jill Meyer, a founding partner of The O.H.I.O. Fund, who added that 1872 shows “its next chapter is being written right here.”