Name: Foundation Alloy
Price range: $

A Foundation for the next industrial era

At Foundation Alloy, our mission is grounded in this simple, bold ambition. High performance metals are the fundamental input to the industrialized world. Yet they haven’t meaningfully changed in generations. We’re here to change that.

The Foundation team is carrying solid-state metallurgy – born at MIT and UC Irvine – forward from proof to practice, and is now continuously redrawing the boundaries of what’s possible with metals. We’re developing next-generation alloys built for the most extreme environments — ultra-durable, high-performance materials that turn science fiction into 21st-century reality. This technology is the most revolutionary development since the Bessemer process in the 19th century, and with it we are spurring the next century of industrial innovation.

Foundation Alloy is a vertically integrated metal parts production platform, partnering with industry leaders across automotive, defense, and consumer sectors. Our solid-state metal manufacturing technology is fast, scalable from grams to tonnes, capital-efficient, and sustainable - driven by deep expertise in alloy design, powder metallurgy, and manufacturing operations. We’re leveraging the world’s fastest metals development cycle while building a comprehensive, proprietary, empirical dataset of manufacturing insights and application-specific material properties to continuously power our innovation engine.

We’re starting with advanced refractory alloys, with titanium and steels coming soon.

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The next standard in alloys

Molyclast™ – a next-generation family of high-performance molybdenum alloys created using Foundation Alloy’s proprietary MetalsFIRST™ manufacturing technology.

Molyclast™ alloys deliver exceptional, isotropic, and tailorable mechanical properties. By eliminating multiple legacy manufacturing steps, the MetalsFIRST™ platform enables Molyclast™ components to be produced faster and more cost-effectively, achieving development cycles up to 10x quicker than conventional methods.

The first alloy in the Molyclast™ class, MC700, is an ultra-fine-grained pure molybdenum offering exceptional strength, cost effectiveness, and isotropy. The most well-rounded pure molybdenum product available, it delivers an outstanding 35–42% elongation at room temperature and a grain structure up to 100× finer than traditionally manufactured molybdenum alloys.

Coming soon:
→MC1200: A carbide-reinforced Molyclast™ alloy engineered for extreme strength, elevated-temperature performance, and simple manufacturing.
→MC X: The highest performance Molyclast™ alloy to date, designed for durability in the most demanding environments where conventional refractory and nickel superalloys fail. Ideal for mission-critical wear-limited components in aerospace, defense, and energy.

Molyclast™ MC700 Data Sheet

Team

Our team brings deep expertise from MIT, ATI, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Navy, and more—united by a mission to push the boundaries of what metals can do.

As CEO, Jake focuses on bringing together the team, resources, and direction that will bring Foundation Alloy to market. LinkedIn →

“We’re adding new, better inputs into the most exciting engineering period in history. The results will be beyond what we can imagine because we’re only just starting to grasp what is possible.”
Jasper Lienhard leads research, development, and technology implementation at Foundation Alloy. He is an expert on powder metallurgy and holds an S.B. and Ph.D. from MIT in Materials Science and Engineering. LinkedIn →

“Metals are the most important class of materials in the world. We’re bringing new technology to market that will create exciting possibilities for what can be accomplished in metal part production.”
A Professor of Metallurgy at MIT for over 20 years, Christopher Schuh develops new methods of materials design and optimization. He has co-founded several startups in the metals and materials space, including Xtalic Corporation and Desktop Metal. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Inventors and the National Academy of Engineering. LinkedIn →

“Solid-state metals processing allows us to put all the atoms in the right place, organizing and optimizing the structure from the nanoscale, to the microscale, to the scale of a full component.”
Tim is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, where his research focuses on increasing the performance, reliability, and lifetime of novel engineering alloys. He received a B.S./M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2007 and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2011. LinkedIn →

“Engineering innovations require that deep science and lab curiosities be brought to bear on real-world challenges. Tackling this challenge energizes us at Foundation Alloy.”
Erin is responsible for scaling manufacturing processes and delivering products from R&D to our customers. He is a 25-plus year veteran of metals manufacturing and holds a BSE in Materials Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern. LinkedIn →

“I am excited to be leapfrogging legacy metals manufacturing in speed, technology, efficiency, and flexibility while introducing game-changing new products that solve real customer problems.”
Herbert leads commercialization and go-to-market strategy at Foundation Alloy. He holds an MBA from Duke University, an MS in Systems Engineering from UCLA, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. LinkedIn →

“The companies that control the best materials will define the next era of industry. I’m passionate about creating the materials that help them get there.”
Nihan is a materials scientist with a deep expertise in metallurgy, leading product development at Foundation Alloy. She brings 15 years of academic research and teaching experience across Europe and the USA, followed by a decade in the industry dedicated to advancing metal 3D printing systems. LinkedIn →

“Metallurgy is one of humanity’s oldest technologies, yet it remains at the heart of innovation—bridging ancient craftsmanship with advancements that shape the future.”