In the three years since teen entrepreneur Ethan Thornton founded Mach Industries, the defense startup has raised $500 million, reaching a $1.8 billion valuation with backing from Silicon Valley investors including Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital. In February, Torrance-based Divergent Technologies and Mach Industries announced a partnership to deliver Venom, an autonomous strike aircraft. Mach Industries builds weapons and defense systems autonomous drones and other products and was founded in 2023 by Thornton when he was a teen. —Kevin CostelloeFounder Wants Focus on Weapons, Not AgeEthan Thornton, 22, has long urged customers and investors to look beyond his age and more to the quality of Mach Industries’ weapons technology. Mach Industries builds autonomous drones and other products and was founded in 2023 by Thornton when he was 19.