{"id":107212,"title":"Neuron Industries: The world's first purpose built industrial controller for AI","tagline":"Throw away your PLCs!","body":"\u003chttps://youtu.be/uey-UwwKSw8\u003e\n\n**TL;DR:** Neuron is building the world's first purpose built industrial controller for AI, replacing the antiquated PLCs running every machine and factory. We compress controls projects from weeks to hours, from chemical processing to nuclear reactors.\n\nWe have hardware ready to deploy today, hit us up for a pilot!\n\n**Problem**\n\nEvery piece of industrial equipment, conveyors, pumps, packaging cells, process plants, runs on PLCs. But PLCs got stuck in the 90s: it's 2026 and you're paying $5000 for a controller with 5MB of memory, programmable only with esoteric IDEs and languages frozen in 1993. Reindustrialization and data center buildups are pushing demand up while the programmer workforce shrinks. Projects still cost a fortune and take months.\n\n**Solution**\n\nWe're rebuilding the controller from first principles: state-of-the-art hardware, an AI-native stack, one ecosystem unifying PLC, HMI, SCADA, and Historian. Our agent contextualizes your requirements and hardware, then lets anyone program production applications in plain English, with test and verification guardrails and first-class data observability.\n\n**Traction**\n\nOur tech is in customers' plants today: pilots in chemical processing, electronics manufacturing, wastewater treatment, and small modular reactors.\n\n**Team**\n\nDennis Ren (CEO): founding EE at Freeform, built the hardware stack for the world's most advanced metal 3D-printing factory. Apple Vision Pro founding team, Amazon Go, Tesla Fremont.\n\nKenneth Rhee (CTO): second-time founder, bootstrapped and exited WorkIPO. Custom ERP, MES, and CRM systems; ex-Amazon and GOAT Group (YC W11).\n\n**Our ask**\n\nIf you — or someone you know — build machines or factories that run on PLCs and HMIs, we'd love to talk: [hello@neuronindustries.com](mailto:hello@neuronindustries.com)","slug":"RtE-neuron-industries-the-world-s-first-purpose-built-industrial-controller-for-ai","created_at":"2026-07-24T18:02:58.034Z","updated_at":"2026-09-19T02:44:57.826Z","total_vote_count":12,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/RtE-neuron-industries-the-world-s-first-purpose-built-industrial-controller-for-ai","share_image_url":"//bookface-static.ycombinator.com/assets/ycdc/yc-og-image-c440a0ad1dacfb86eeeb343717479cc54d256614449b4ef719977a0a451f8bc8.png","company":{"id":32717,"name":"Neuron Industries","slug":"neuron-industries","url":"https://neuronindustries.com","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/12fc3438894b5a05c8d3d1997a329d2c5053c9b8.png","batch":"Summer 2026","industry":"Industrials","tags":["Robotic Process Automation","Manufacturing","Automation","Industrial"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/32717"}}