Divergent is changing the ways cars are made

When Pete Hegseth visited the Divergent factory in Torrance, Calif., earlier this month, he was supposed to take a quick, 30-minute tour of the facility.Instead, the Secretary of War stayed for more than two hours — captivated by the work Divergent is doing using state-of-the-art 3D printers to manufacture Tomahawk missiles, helicopter parts, luxury car chassis and much more, all under one roof.Products that used to take years to design and manufacture can be made by Divergent in just weeks.“Our mission for ten years has been to build the 21st century industrial base,” Divergent’s CEO Lukas Czinger, 31, said.

“Divergent was founded to build a new way of engineering and manufacturing.”Divergent was started in 2014 by Lukas’ father, Kevin, 66.A former Goldman Sachs executive who went on to work in electric vehicles, he wanted to pioneer a new approach to manufacturing.

The company specializes in AI design and 3D printing complex structures, and works with both defense companies, such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, and high-end car manufacturers, such as McLaren, Bugatti, and Aston Martin.What makes Divergent remarkable is that it houses a complete supply chain under one roof.The company can take an idea (their own or a client’s), create a design with AI, print the parts on custom 3D printers using proprietary aluminum powder, and assemble the final product with robots in the same facility, often on the same day.That end-to-end vertical integration has unlocked 3D printing’s potential. “There wasn’t a company that stitched together the full environment [before us],” Lukas said.Divergent’s printers are three times faster than anything else on the market.

They can make single components as large as 2.3 feet-by-2.6 feet.Once goods are assembled together, they are regularly over 13 feet.The speed also allows the company to iterate rapidly, printing new versions overnight to fix problems or boost performance.

Once perfected, they can scale p...