ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | NOVEMBER 2026 43 A new generation of startup companies is taking on problems the materials workforce has worked on for decades. Yet now, materials innovation is further accelerated by computational modeling, AI, robotics, and automation, and propelled by the pressing need for domestic manufacturing of the critical materials and systems the engineered world relies on. This Spotlight on Materials Innovation Startups showcases a few of these young companies: who they are, what they are building, and what they need. Some of those needs may be contacts or resources the ASM community is uniquely equipped to provide. Within the last decade there has been an array of materials-focused startups coming to life, making it an exciting time to be in the field. Some representatives of this growing community are featured here as a way to recognize and encourage their innovative materials endeavors. AI-POWERED MATERIALS DISCOVERY, DESIGN, AND QUALIFICATION AIMETRA • Year Founded: 2025 • Location: San Mateo, Calif. • Founders: Dr. Morad Behandish and Dr. Jean-Charles Stinville AIMetra is building a proprietary “Material Spatial Intelligence (MSI)” platform to accelerate materials characterization, qualification, certification, design, and manufacturing. Materials quality control and assurance, process qualification and certification, and materials-integrated engineering design are costly and represent major bottlenecks in many industries. AIMetra aims to provide rapid testing and characterization of advanced material properties, speeding up characterization campaigns from weeks or months to hours or days. With roots in DARPA-funded research at SRI International and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, AIMetra is now moving from government-funded research toward industry pilots. Wish list: Pilot projects to prove value propositions; commercial leads for AI x Materials Contact: Dr. Morad Behandish, morad@aimetra.ai Website: aimetra.ai MATNEX • Year Founded: 2020 • Location: London, U.K. • Founders: Dr. Jonathan Bean (CEO) and Dr. Robert Forrest (CTO) MatNex designs critical materials to specification. Spun out of research at the University of Cambridge in 2020, the company combines machine learning, quantummechanical simulation and automated lab validation in one workflow: customers define performance, cost, and manufacturability targets; MatNex designs candidate materials from first principles and lab results fed back into the models. The platform holds a proprietary dataset of 234,000 novel stable structures and has predicted, synthesized, and measured four novel rare-earth-free material classes, three magnetic, and one superconducting. The first commercial focus is rareearth-free and rare-earth-reduced permanent magnets for motors and actuators. MatNex owns the intellectual property on its materials and licenses it to manufacturers. SPOTLIGHT ON MATERIALS INNOVATION STARTUPS A look at some unique materials-centric startups, how they are breaking new ground, and what could help to advance their technology. Lun Chan,* X-Energy Inc., Arlington, Virginia *Member of ASM International Stinville Behandish Forrest Bean
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