Video · 2026-08-05 · 10m · 6 moments

The Ocean Company - Ulysses | a16z American Dynamism

✦ AI generated

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Claim◆

The ocean remains largely unexplored and mysterious despite its critical importance, and we now have the technological tools to change that.

Ulysses was founded to build underwater robots for ecosystem restoration, but expanded to address the broader challenge that underwater work is too expensive and difficult across nature, offshore industry, and defense.

transcript

Ulysses founder: We started Ulysses 3 years ago in the effort to build underwater robots to solve a very specific problem. We wanted to massively scale up underwater ecosystem restoration. But in doing that and going after that problem, we realized that there is a lot more than underwater ecosystem restoration that needs to be scaled up. Work underwater being expensive or difficult was a limiting factor and not only applications in nature in offshore industry and in defense too.

Mechanism

The AI supercycle is driving massive demand for subsea cables, critical minerals, and energy, and the ocean is the primary resource for all of them.

The AI supercycle is creating enormous demand for subsea cables, critical minerals, and energy, all of which are primarily sourced from the ocean. This will drive a future where robots operate in every domain, including the sea.

transcript

Ulysses founder: The AI super cycle is increasing demand for subsea cables. It's increasing demand for critical minerals. It's increasing demand for energy. These are all things which the ocean is a primary resource for. There's going to be robots that operate in and manage every domain 10 to 15 years from now. You see it already happening on land with self-driving cars and in the air with delivery drones and things like that. We're the ones building the robots for the ocean.

provides context · 1

Prediction◆

The nature of warfare is fundamentally changing toward distributed, autonomous, asymmetric operations, and the U.S. military's investment in expensive 'exquisite' systems is insufficient for future conflicts at sea.

Geopolitical tensions — mines in the Strait of Hormuz, threats on the Bab el-Mandeb, undersea cable tapping, oil pipeline explosions — illustrate that warfare is becoming more distributed, autonomous, and asymmetric, and the U.S. military's historical investment in expensive centralized systems is not enough to fight future conflicts.

transcript

Ulysses founder: There's so many things changing in the oceans a lot due to this new order of geopolitics that we're seeing coming out. Whether it's mines being placed in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran being unable to find them again or threats on the Bab el-Mandeb or tapping of undersea cables or oil pipelines getting exploded. But this isn't anything new for people that have been working on the sea for years. The nature of warfare is fundamentally changing. It's becoming more distributed, more autonomous, less centralized. And the investments that the United States military has made in exquisite systems over the last 50 years, while they have been important, they are simply not sufficient to fight the conflicts of the future. Warfare is trending increasingly asymmetric where small cheap things can be used to take out very high value assets. This is what we saw in Ukraine. This is going to happen in the ocean. You need to make things cheaper. You need drones. You need unmanned systems. The maritime domain is just becoming more and more important.

Mechanism

The company's modular underwater vehicle design — with standardized interfaces across power, data, and mechanical connections — allows rapid reconfiguration for different missions.

Ulysses brings machining in-house to iterate quickly, and uses a fully modular architecture where every module shares standardized power and data connectors. Customers can add sensors, swap batteries, or add thrusters in the field within minutes.

transcript

Ulysses founder: On the mechanical side of the house, we've brought machining in-house specifically so that we can design something, make it the next day and see if it works. We have had a lot of customer input that the modularity is important to them and what it enables is that they can add the sensors they want. They can configure in the field to add more battery or more maneuverability with extra thrusters etc. Each one of our modules has a standardized interface. We have two power pins here and a data connector here. Every single module has that loadout so they can all connect together. They're all getting full battery voltage and full data connection across the entire vehicle. Every single connection is standardized. If we want to go down and survey something with the multibeam echosounder or sonar systems, we can just strap those to the front of it and have that capability within 20 minutes.

Context

The ocean has a fundamental advantage over space for hardware iteration: it covers most of the planet, so you can test in real conditions and get the best possible feedback to iterate quickly.

Unlike space, which is extremely hard to access for testing, the ocean covers most of the planet. If Ulysses can build something water-ready, they can get real-world data immediately — which is always better than simulation — and iterate rapidly.

transcript

Ulysses founder: Real world data is always better and always more accurate than any sort of simulation you can do. When going into space, it's a lot harder to access space and just go up to test and get your real world space data. It's not the case with the ocean. You know, most of the planet is covered with it. So, we have this advantage where if we can get something that's ready to go in the water, we can get the best possible feedback to iterate on.

Prediction◆

Ulysses aims to become synonymous with the ocean in the way SpaceX is synonymous with space — fundamentally rethinking how humanity interacts with the sea.

The broader vision is a network of surface and undersea vehicles operating 24/7 as fixed infrastructure in the ocean, similar to satellites in space. Ulysses wants to be the company synonymous with the ocean, rethinking how humanity both uses and protects this resource.

transcript

Ulysses founder: The broader vision of what we're doing is that you have a network of surface and undersea vehicles and they're operating 24/7 to solve these critical tasks all around the ocean. They become fixed infrastructure in the ocean in the same way we've just accepted that there is satellites above our heads. We like to use the moniker the ocean company sometimes because where we want to be in 5, 10 years is a company that is synonymous with the ocean in the way that SpaceX is synonymous with space. We want to be the technology company that fulfilling its vision completely rethinks how we can act with the ocean and enables humanity to get a lot more out of this resource and to give a lot more back to it.

Highlight slides

The ocean is still largely unexplored — and we now have the tools to change that✦ from: The ocean remains largely unexplored and mysterious despite its critical importance, and we now have the technological tools to change that.Warfare Is Becoming Distributed, Autonomous, and Asymmetric✦ from: The nature of warfare is fundamentally changing toward distributed, autonomous, asymmetric operations, and the U.S. military's investment in expensive 'exquisite' systems is insufficient for future conflicts at sea.Exquisite Systems Are Not Enough for Future Sea Conflicts✦ from: The nature of warfare is fundamentally changing toward distributed, autonomous, asymmetric operations, and the U.S. military's investment in expensive 'exquisite' systems is insufficient for future conflicts at sea.Becoming the 'Ocean Company'✦ from: Ulysses aims to become synonymous with the ocean in the way SpaceX is synonymous with space — fundamentally rethinking how humanity interacts with the sea.

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