Arda, an AI manufacturing software company founded by former OpenAI research head Bob McGrew, has raised $230 million in a funding round valuing the startup at $1.5 billion. The round was led by Altimeter Capital, Accel, and Khosla Ventures. The company develops AI agents designed to accelerate production line setup and modification for manufacturing engineers. According to McGrew, adjusting automated production lines after design changes typically takes three to six months. Arda's technology combines self-developed models, open-source models, and frontier models, with its product already deployed at defense technology firm Anduril. Co-founders include Adept co-founder Augustus Odena and former Palantir engineers Alex Mark and Jakob Frick. McGrew departed OpenAI in 2024, and Arda plans to expand into the robotics field next.