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 production quickly. One printer can produce 400 munition structures per year, and Divergent has 14 printers.

Doing everything under one roof is not only more efficient; it also saves big on transportation and fuel costs.

“So you truly have a product that is higher performing [and] cheaper per unit and you get into the market in a fraction of the time,” Lukas said.

Their ability to build so quickly has become a part of Trump’s peace through strength approach to foreign policy. 

“The factory is the weapon — just having the capacity to produce IS deterrence,” Lukas explained. “That can change the arc of competition.” Divergent’s high-powered printers can also be sent all around the world where they could potentially print weapons close to the frontlines of a conflict.

Divergent’s success is a remarkable turnaround for a company that struggled to find backers just over a decade ago when it was founded. At the time, most venture capitalists were focused solely on software — the next app, the next social media company, the next unicorn startup.

The idea of re-shoring and building an industrial base wasn’t something Silicon Valley thought was sexy.

“It wasn’t attractive to do hardware, but if you were doing it, they wanted to see an outsource strategy because that’s where you’re going to get the cheapest cost,” Lukas said. “We had to bring in investors … that understood the vision and were true patriots.”

Now, the family business is reaping the benefits of being ahead of the curve. The company recently raised $290 million Series E at a $2.3 billion valuation. It holds more than 600 patents, employs over 500 people, and is working on more than 40 Pentagon contracts. They’re mum on whether they have plans to potentially go public.

Lukas, who graduated Yale in 2017, joined his father full-time immediately after completing an electrical engineer degree. Working together is easy, he said.

“It’s a level of trust and efficiency that you can’t have with anyone other than your own blood … We’ve got ultimate trust for each other, and that trickles down into the efficiency of the company as well.”

Divergent has become one of the most prominent examples of how technology can rebuild America’s manufacturing capacity, particularly against China, which produces 30% of global manufacturing, compared to America’s 16%).

“The only way we win against China is to scale a next-gen model,” Lukas emphasized. “We were able to develop a technology that is a full leapfrog of the China capability … they don’t have the printers we have, the robotic cells, the post-processing.”

While Divergent has benefited from the Trump administration’s objectives, Lukas believes the trend will outlast any single administration. And the fact they can print an almost endless number of parts helps, too.

The technology and manufacturing capability the Czingers are building does more than power missiles and build helicopters — it’s also used in some of the world’s most expensive cars and even their own hypercar, the 21C, an ultra-high-performance luxury vehicle.

The 21C was unveiled in 2020 and remains in production as a $3 million hypercar. Despite the car being so pricey, their technology may reach consumers sooner than expected. In future, he believes all cars could rely on 3D printed components.

“Affordability in the US is something that Divergent can enable for mass market auto in the future,” Lukas said. Just as the company has driven down defense costs, he believes scaling production for cars will bring down prices there too.

Over the next decade, Divergent plans to build out more than 100 factories across the country.

While the Czingers are planning to expand to other states, Lukas said he wouldn’t change a thing about starting in California, despite recent reports of companies fleeing.

Their Torrance location, about 20 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles, is ideal for defense tech. Engineering talent and venture capital remain accessible, and they’re surrounded by companies such as Anduril, Shield AI, Lockheed and Raytheon.

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At the moment, their focus is on defense — and speed.

“It’s a race,” Lukas said. “We wake up every morning to build these systems, build the capacity, because we know tens of thousands of units with this performance could deter conflict — which none of us want to go into.”