# Hermeus Atlanta-based startup building hypersonic aircraft for defense and eventually commercial travel. Backed by [[Founders Fund]], [[In-Q-Tel]], and notably [[Sam Altman]]. ## Key Facts - **Total raised:** $399M. Series B led by Sam Altman with [[Founders Fund]], [[In-Q-Tel]], [[Khosla Ventures]]. - **Quarterhorse Mk 1** — First successful flight test at Edwards AFB (May 2025). Went from clean-sheet to flying in roughly 365 days. - **Quarterhorse Mk 2.1** — Second successful flight (announced March 2026). - Cecil Airport (Florida) is the new primary flight test base starting 2026. ## Products - **Quarterhorse** — Autonomous hypersonic demonstrator aircraft. Mach 5+ target speed. - **Darkhorse** — Planned operational hypersonic aircraft for ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) and strike missions. ## Defense Application Hypersonic flight is one of the Pentagon's top priority capability gaps, driven by China's and [[Russia]]'s own hypersonic weapons programs. Hermeus is building the U.S. answer as a startup rather than a legacy prime — same playbook as [[Anduril]] applied to air speed instead of autonomy. ## a16z Connection Hermeus appears on [[Andreessen Horowitz]]'s [[American Dynamism]] 50 list, though [[Founders Fund]] and [[In-Q-Tel]] are the primary investors. Like [[Hadrian]], Hermeus sits in the Thiel/Founders Fund orbit. Compare with a16z-backed [[Castelion]], which is also building hypersonic systems but with a munitions (not aircraft) focus. ## See Also - [[Founders Fund]] - [[In-Q-Tel]] - [[Andreessen Horowitz]] - [[American Dynamism]] - [[Castelion]] - [[Defense Tech as Asset Class]]