Analysis
American Advanced Materials raised $12.5 million in seed funding led by Amity Ventures and signed offtake letters of intent worth more than $1 billion with industry buyers, the startup said, as it works to restart US production of titanium sponge, a material the country hasn't produced domestically since 2020.
What American Advanced Materials does
Founded in 2025 and based in Mountain View, California and New York City, American Advanced Materials describes itself as an AI-native manufacturing platform for the advanced materials that underpin AI infrastructure, defense and energy, starting with titanium sponge, according to PR Newswire. Co-founder and CEO Alex Liegl previously founded Tenet Energy, an EV and home-electrification fintech platform, and Layer1, a renewable-energy bitcoin mining company backed by Peter Thiel. Co-founder, president and CTO Diego Represas previously founded Able AI, an AI data platform later acquired by Moody's Corp. The two met as freshmen at Stanford. Beyond titanium sponge, the company is developing zirconium oxychloride, a precursor material the release says the US "fully relies on Chinese imports" to source today.
American Advanced Materials funding history
This is the company's first disclosed funding round: a $12.5 million seed. AAM plans to raise separate project financing to build and operate its first commercial facility, which will use the Kroll process -- a decades-old, commercially proven method for producing titanium sponge. The seed funding itself is earmarked for growing the team and advancing front-end engineering and design work ahead of that facility.
“This is the company's first disclosed funding round: a $12.5 million seed.”
Who invested in American Advanced Materials
Amity Ventures, which manages more than $2 billion in assets, led the round. Human Capital, Anti Fund and Powerset participated. Human Capital has backed both of Liegl's and Represas's prior companies -- Tenet Energy and Able AI, respectively -- making this at least the third startup the firm has funded from this founding team.
Titanium market and competitors
The US has not produced titanium sponge domestically since 2020, even as imports hit a record 44,000 metric tons in 2025, according to US Geological Survey data cited in the release. Industry projections put domestic demand at 60,000 metric tons over the next 18 months. China accounts for 68% of global sponge titanium production, with Dongbang Titanium Industry and Osaka Titanium Industry Technology dominating supply, per an SMM Information & Technology analysis. AAM isn't alone chasing that gap: IperionX, another domestic-titanium startup, has received additional Department of Defense funding -- $25 million disclosed this year, per 3DPrint.com -- to scale its own domestic titanium powder production, part of a broader push we track in our funding tracker toward reshoring the materials AI infrastructure depends on.
What to watch next
The signed letters of intent -- covering future titanium sponge and zirconium oxychloride production for buyers in aerospace, AI infrastructure, defense and energy -- are worth more than 80 times the seed round itself, but LOIs are non-binding commitments, not contracts with committed volumes or prepayments. The risk is straightforward: AAM still needs project financing to build the commercial facility those letters depend on, and the company hasn't named which buyers signed them. Whether AAM can convert that demand signal into binding offtake agreements, the way IperionX has converted government funding into actual production scale-up, is the next milestone that will determine if this seed round was underpriced.