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Hardware Startups in SF Bay Area
Hardware startups SF Bay Area-based in the HardwareMap index: AI chips, robots, energy, space and devices, with stage, disclosed raise and status.
by the HardwareMap editors3 min read
From the HardwareMap index, REV 26.09, refreshed 3 Oct 2026
Contents
The HardwareMap index counts 49 hardware startups SF Bay Area-wide as of REV 26.09, more than any other hub and about a fifth of the whole catalogue. They span AI chips, robots, reactors, satellites and consumer devices, from seed stage to public. It sits under hardware startup hubs, the map of where the index is built.
The table shows the top 30 by disclosed capital raised, to keep it readable. The full Bay Area list, with every filter, is in the live directory.
Hardware startups SF Bay Area: the category mix
The Bay Area is a silicon hub first. Of the 49 entries:
Fabrication has no Bay Area entry in REV 26.09. Compare Los Angeles, where aerospace and defense lead, on the hub map.
Silicon: the largest Bay Area group
The chip companies carry most of the region's capital. Cerebras Systems in Sunnyvale builds wafer-scale processors and is public. Tenstorrent in Santa Clara sells RISC-V based AI chips and licenses IP. SambaNova Systems, Etched, MatX and d-Matrix build inference and training accelerators. Light-based interconnect is a Bay Area specialty: Lightmatter and Ayar Labs both move data between chips with photonics, and PsiQuantum in Palo Alto builds a photonic quantum computer. SiFive licenses RISC-V processor cores and Oxide Computer Company in Emeryville builds rack-scale servers. The AI chip startups list covers the group nationally.
Robots, energy, space and devices
Robotics is the second group, led by Figure AI in San Jose and 1X Technologies in Palo Alto; the full list is on robotics companies in the Bay Area. Energy runs from fission to industrial heat: Oklo (Santa Clara, public) designs the Aurora, a compact sodium-cooled fast reactor, Antora Energy and Rondo Energy store heat for factories, and Twelve in Berkeley turns CO2 into fuel. Mobility includes Zipline, Waymo and Archer Aviation. Astranis builds small geostationary satellites in San Francisco, and Skydio builds drones in San Mateo. On the device side, Neuralink in Fremont builds brain implants, Oura moved its ring business from Finland to San Francisco in 2022, and Framework Computer sells repairable laptops.
What the Bay Area entries have in common
Four patterns in REV 26.09, counted from the datasheets:
- Late-stage and well funded. 13 of the 49 have disclosed $1 billion or more. Only one, Daylight Computer, has no disclosed raise. Series C is the most common named round, at 13 entries; 21 entries have a round name that is not public.
- Mostly private. Oklo, Archer Aviation, Cerebras and Samsara are public companies. Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet. Every other Bay Area entry is privately held.
- Founded in the late 2010s. 31 entries were founded between 2015 and 2019. Eight date from 2022 or later, including Figure AI, Etched, MatX, Mytra and Collaborative Robotics.
- Built locally, scaled elsewhere. Some entries manufacture inside the region: 1X opened a 58,000 sq ft NEO factory in Hayward in April 2026 (1X), and Antora builds its heat batteries in San Jose. Others scale where land and power are cheaper: Twelve designed its CO2-to-fuel hardware in Berkeley and opened AirPlant One in Moses Lake, Washington, in June 2026 (Twelve).
For a founder, the read is direct. The Bay Area offers chip, robotics and AI talent and the most capital in the index, at Bay Area rents. Hardware that needs acres, test ranges or a launch site tends to go elsewhere, which is why rockets and defense cluster in Los Angeles. The hardware startups index shows every hub side by side.
Where in the Bay Area
Counts by city, REV 26.09: San Francisco 10, San Jose 8, Santa Clara 6, Mountain View 6, Redwood City 4, Palo Alto 3, Sunnyvale 3, Emeryville 2, and one each in Alameda, Berkeley, Brisbane, Fremont, Oakland, San Mateo and South San Francisco. The South Bay holds most of the chips; San Francisco holds most of the consumer and energy entries. The index groups all of these cities into one metro so the hub reads as one place, the way engineers, suppliers and investors move between them every day.
Frequently asked questions
How many hardware startups are in the SF Bay Area?
The HardwareMap index lists 49 hardware companies headquartered in the SF Bay Area as of REV 26.09, about one in five of the whole index and the largest single hub. Broader databases count thousands once software-led device companies and stealth teams are included. The index lists a company only when it has a public product, a public source and an operating team.
What kind of hardware startups are in the Bay Area?
Mostly silicon. AI chips, photonics, RISC-V processors and quantum computing make up 17 of the 49 Bay Area entries. Robotics is second with 9, then energy and mobility with 5 each. Aerospace and defense, which dominate Los Angeles, have one entry each here: Astranis and Skydio.
Which Bay Area city has the most hardware startups?
San Francisco, with 10 of the 49 entries as of REV 26.09, followed by San Jose with 8 and Santa Clara and Mountain View with 6 each. San Francisco leans to consumer devices, energy and industrial software-plus-hardware. The South Bay cities lean to chips, with Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Mountain View holding most of the silicon group.
Is the Bay Area still the best place to start a hardware company?
It has the most entries and the most disclosed capital in the index, and the deepest pool of chip and robotics engineers. It also has high rents for test floors and labs. Founders building rockets or defense hardware cluster in Los Angeles instead, and consumer electronics often iterate faster near Shenzhen suppliers. The right hub depends on what you build.
HardwareMap catalogues every Bay Area hardware company that meets the bar. Open any company above for its datasheet: stage, disclosed raise, team and status.
The index
All 219 startups, filterable by category, hub, stage and funding.