The 9 Standout Startups from Y Combinator’s Latest Batch

Atomarine is among the most discussed, proposing nuclear-powered data centers on barges to bypass local infrastructure pushback and energy shortages. The company claims $4 billion in customer interest, targeting a 2032 launch for its floating power ships. Similarly, Isengard Industries is drawing attention in the defense sector with jet-powered drones, already pulling in $10 million in revenue by focusing on local, cost-effective production for allied nations.

Energy efficiency remains the primary theme across the cohort. Dipole Labs is addressing the power-heavy conversion of data from light to electricity in AI clusters with new optical networking hardware, while Lamb Labs seeks to hardcode model weights into silicon to slash energy consumption. Parasma is taking a more experimental route, exploring the use of human brain cells as a biological alternative to traditional computing hardware.

Robotics and automation also saw significant interest. Nori has attracted attention by pricing a humanoid domestic robot at $1,600, significantly undercutting competitors, while Cosmic Robotics is securing contracts for heavy-duty automation with an eye toward Martian construction. Waddle Labs rounds out the field by providing an API layer that allows developers to control robots using natural language, effectively acting as an LLM interface for physical hardware. Rounding out the list, Praxis AI is building the foundational datasets needed to train these future machines, having already logged activity across 150 different human-work environments.