Our story
Delivering the future of diamond
Innovating in solar power
Our founding team of M.I.T., Stanford, and Princeton engineers develop pioneering technology with the potential to make solar power mainstream. Creating America’s first venture-funded solar tech startup, they grow it into the highest-valued solar startup with $640m in funding. Then the venture fails after ten years of work.
The lessons are plenty including that
a. "10x moonshots" are not a good idea in tech manufacturing but "fast iterative compounding incremental innovation" is;
b. competing with China is not a good idea;
c. profitability enables deep innovation beyond the horizon of any venture investor.
Diamond Foundry is founded based on these principles and realizing that technology similar to solar can be used to create a high-value good: diamond.
Designing reactors to grow diamond
Starting from first principles, the Maxwell equations, and thousands of physics-based computer simulations, the team sets out to invent a new type of a plasma reactor that is highly productive at creating the atomically densest material in the universe: diamond.
Forming plasma as hot as the outer layers of the sun
We start a series of experiments in a warehouse just south of San Francisco. We build three generations of plasma reactors from scratch, crafting hundreds of individual, precision-engineered parts.
Launching the first plasma reactor
After eight months of building the first full reactor and spending our entire funds on it, the moment of truth arrives: the reactor is ready. Great relief spreads around the office when the technology works as designed and the plasma lights.
First real diamond created
We create the first pieces of single-crystal diamond and polish them into gems from their rough. It turns out that fabricating clean diamond is a thorny issue: benevolent supporters call their brown color “cognac”.
Kicking off and increasing production
After three years of technological development, Diamond Foundry Inc. comes out of stealth mode with funding from leading lights in the industry.
First sales commence directly to consumers worldwide. All diamonds produced fly off the shelves. The team ramps up production as fast as possible.
Creating D Foundry I in Washington State
We develop our first MegaCarat foundry. Powered by the Columbia River in Wenatchee, Washington State, we utilize zero-emission energy.
Growing ever larger diamond crystals
Our direct-to-consumer channel VRAI teams up with designers Jony Ive and Marc Newson to create the world's first "diamond ring" for Bono’s (RED). The ring is auctioned by Sotheby’s at Art Basel.
Achieving profitability
Our 100% hydro-powered Washington State foundry commences normal production.
We turns profitable and start generating free cash.
Accelerating scale
By virtue of developing both equipment and process technologies in parallel and iteratively, we accelerate productivity and scale.
Our in-house equipment production team becomes its own operation.
World’s first single-crystal diamond wafer
We acquire Audiatec, a German company that has worked for 25 years on the singular scientific challenge of synthesizing single-crystal diamonds.
Our teams achieve the historical breakthrough of creating the world’s first single-crystal diamond wafer, a milestone effectively arcing back to the creation of the first silicon wafer in 1959.
Building D Foundry II in Spain
With support by the EU and the government of Spain, we launch one of Spain's largest industrial projects in the province of Extremadura.
D Foundry II includes its own solar power farm and a building designed by Ettore Sottsass partner Marco Zanini.
The Diamond Shaping The Future
Avoiding the human and environmental toll of mining, our sustainably created diamond substitutes and transcends mined diamond for all places where mined diamond has been able to go. Then in the form of wafers, our diamond can go to places where mined diamond could not, such as empowering the industries that transform the future of computing, wireless communication, and sustainable transportion.