HII signs performance-based production deals with Path Robotics and GrayMatter Robotics

HII announced long-term performance-based production agreements with High-Yield Production Robotics (HYPR) team members GrayMatter Robotics and Path Robotics, aiming to accelerate the development and deployment of advanced physical AI automation across U.S. Navy shipbuilding programs, including aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, amphibious ships, future frigates and unmanned surface vessels.

“We are committed to making generational investments to develop new shipbuilding capability and to expand capacity,” said Eric Chewning, executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at HII. “Together, we are defining a new approach to robotics in shipbuilding: automation that can adapt to extreme levels of complexity, mix, and size. This collaboration represents a strategic investment in the future of American shipbuilding — strengthening industrial base resilience, expanding distributed shipbuilding capacity, feeding critical materials to our shipyards and workforce, and unlocking new production efficiencies essential to delivering the Navy’s growing fleet.”

Under the agreements, HII intends to award up to $900 million in total shipbuilding work to Path Robotics and GrayMatter Robotics over seven years, contingent on technology and manufacturing readiness and performance milestones. The sustained demand signal is intended to enable both companies to make significant long-term investments in robotics, autonomous systems, facilities and workforce to deliver Navy-grade production at scale.

“For years, we’ve believed physical AI could fundamentally change manufacturing,” said Andy Lonsberry, CEO and co-founder of Path Robotics. “HYPR is a powerful validation of our vision — that physical AI can scale shipbuilding capacity in one of the world’s most demanding production environments. Together with HII, we’re proud to be building the shipyard of the future, unlocking distributed shipbuilding, and establishing a blueprint for strengthening America’s maritime industrial base.”

“This agreement represents an important milestone in bringing Factory SuperIntelligence to America’s leading shipbuilding company,” said Ariyan Kabir, CEO and co-founder of GrayMatter Robotics. “By combining Physical AI with autonomous production systems, we’re helping create manufacturing that learns, adapts, and improves over time, making complex shipbuilding faster, more resilient, and more scalable.

Together with HII and Path Robotics, we’re laying the foundation for the next generation of American industrial capability and helping ensure that the United States can build critical assets at the speed and scale our national security demands.”

The performance-based production agreements are part of a broader set of strategic arrangements that form the HYPR Program, including collaboration and joint development frameworks that establish governance, program execution and long-term operational alignment. The companies expect the joint effort to push automation beyond what has been used in shipbuilding to date.

The agreements are structured in two stages: a Navy-grade development stage and a delivery stage. In development, the companies will work with HII to develop, validate and qualify high-precision production techniques for autonomous welding, grinding, blasting, painting, assembly, inspection and other fabrication processes, integrating them into an autonomous production line under a rigorous testing, qualification and oversight process. In delivery, HII will begin sourcing shipbuilding work through the new line, contingent on favorable cost, schedule and quality performance, to augment its distributed shipbuilding strategy starting with small steel structures and expanding to units and modules.

In 2026, HII plans to outsource more than 2.5 million hours of shipbuilding work, a 30% increase from 2025, while expanding its structural assembly network to enable more work to be completed outside the shipyards before final assembly.