US technology firms Tuurny and aRobotics on August 10 announced a strategic joint venture to design and manufacture AI-driven robotic systems that autonomously harvest microchips and rare materials from discarded electronics and decommissioned military hardware, all built in the United States.
A Response To The Defense Production Act
The partnership is a direct answer to a July 2026 White House mandate invoking the Defense Production Act for recoverable critical minerals. Rather than wait years for new geological mines, the venture will process the "above-ground mine" of e-waste: warehouses of retired circuit boards and military electronics packed with tantalum, palladium, neodymium and working legacy chips.
How The Robots Work
Tuurny is contributing its core software and proprietary tabletop chip-harvesting system, which uses computer vision, edge computing and machine learning to navigate dense circuit boards, identify components and desolder them without destroying adjacent parts. New York-based aRobotics will manufacture the machinery to heavy-duty military standards, drawing on hardware experience with the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force.
Each extraction is logged with a serial number and condition record, giving buyers an auditable digital trail. That traceability is central to two of the venture's three stated use cases: secure demilitarization of retired hardware, and reliable spare-part supply for legacy radars, aircraft and specialized aerospace systems whose original chips are long out of production.
Onshoring The Critical-Minerals Supply Chain
Tuurny founder Sina Ghashghaei framed the pitch bluntly: opening new mines takes years of regulatory approval and heavy capital, while extracting minerals and functional chips from existing hardware is available now. aRobotics chief executive Akaash Kancharla said the tie-up gives defense agencies a domestic pipeline that reduces exposure to overseas supply-chain shocks.
The joint venture plans to deploy its first systems in the coming months across military supply depots, aerospace manufacturers, defense contractors and certified e-waste facilities. It joins a broader wave of onshoring bets in US defense-tech, including Hadrian's $1.37B Series D for automated defense factories and ePropelled's $60M grant to onshore drone-motor production.
Reporting based on coverage from BisInfotech, The Manila Times and Submit123PR.