Atomic Machines tests its tooling-free factory claim on a 150-amp relay

Holden's case starts with where a device's design lives. In a conventional plant, he argues, the design is embodied in physical tooling: molds, masks, dies, fixtures and retooled lines ^[12]. Atomic Machines stores device designs as software instructions instead, and measures each production operation, so a design can change without rebuilding dedicated tooling ^[18]. Its system description calls the process all-digital, with no masks and no production-line retooling ^[6].

A relay can test only part of that. One relay shows the system can make a relay. The company also says the same system could build different devices ^[21]. According to RuntimeWire, nothing Atomic Machines has published includes third-party test data or shows the process repeating at commercial volumes ^[7].

On paper, the part itself is sound engineering. PrimeSwitch is a bistable electromechanical relay, so it holds its state without power ^[13]. Atomic Machines frames the problem as a choice between two switch types. Electromechanical relays conduct metal to metal but take milliseconds to open, while solid-state switches open in microseconds and conduct through semiconductors that, the company says, bring higher losses and heat ^[17]. PrimeSwitch is rated to open in 50 microseconds ^[14]. I think the hybrid-breaker configuration is the best idea in the launch. In it, a small solid-state bypass carries the current only during the microseconds the contacts take to open ^[1], so the semiconductor is never asked to carry the steady load.

The datasheet figures are the company's measurements of its own parts ^[14]. At the rated 150 amps, 200 micro-ohms of on-resistance gives a 30-millivolt drop and about 4.5 watts of heat per relay ^[20][19]. That heat has to leave a surface-mount package 9.5 millimeters across and 3 millimeters high, and Atomic Machines says the part needs no active cooling ^[15]. For the rating to transfer to a customer's rack, the resistance has to stay near 200 micro-ohms from unit to unit and across switching cycles. The host board also has to move 4.5 watts out of that footprint ^[19]. Unit-to-unit spread on that resistance is the first figure I would want from the evaluation units, because one number tests both the relay and the measure-every-build process.

Holden introduced PS-150 on October 7, 2026 ^[2]. He reached factory automation through software and product work, according to Crunchbase ^[11]. He was a software engineer and vice president at D. E. Shaw, co-founded Pelago, held senior product roles at Amazon and Groupon, and became Uber's chief product officer ^[11]. Crunchbase dates his founding of Atomic Machines to May 2019 ^[11]. Named investors include Gigafund, Valor Equity Partners, XTX Ventures and the Regents of the University of California ^[9]. The relay's first public showing is at the Open Compute Project Global Summit in San Jose, October 12 to 15 ^[10].