Hermeus, the Atlanta-born hypersonic aircraft startup that wants to make "really, really fast" the new normal, is shifting its headquarters to El Segundo and settling into executive offices at the revamped 888 North Douglas campus. The company will hang on to its large Atlanta production factory for assembly work, while executive, design, and prototyping teams head to the South Bay, adding one more high-profile aerospace name to the growing cluster near Los Angeles International Airport.
Funding And A West Coast Push
The headquarters news dropped the same day Hermeus revealed a $350 million financing round led by Khosla Ventures that pegs the company’s value at about $1 billion, according to the Los Angeles Times. The paper reports Hermeus has now raised roughly $500 million in equity and debt, including a $100 million round led by Sam Altman in 2022, as it races to get hardware in the air.
CEO AJ Piplica told the Los Angeles Times the startup has pulled in engineering talent from SpaceX while it builds toward a faster, more iterative aircraft development cycle. The outlet also notes that Hermeus is keeping its 110,000-square-foot Atlanta facility as a production hub, even as the corporate center of gravity shifts west.
Prototype Flights And Testing
On the flight-test front, Hermeus says its Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 flew out of Spaceport America in February and that the Federal Aviation Administration granted a Special Airworthiness Certificate for the vehicle, milestones the company frames as stepping stones toward supersonic flight, according to Hermeus. Company materials note the earlier Mk 1 made its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base in May 2025 as part of a rapid "build-and-fly" cadence intended to push the program toward ever higher speeds.
Hermeus also runs a High Enthalpy Air-breathing Test, or HEAT, facility for engine testing in Jacksonville and plans to keep engineering offices in Hawthorne as it builds out its West Coast footprint, according to Hermeus.
What It Means For El Segundo
In El Segundo, Hermeus has started moving into space at Hackman Capital Partners' 888 North Douglas campus and is expected to take full occupancy early next year, the Los Angeles Times reports. Commercial real-estate coverage from Commercial Observer puts the lease at about 62,552 square feet, highlighting the campus’s growing appeal for defense-tech outfits like Varda and its peers.
City officials have been quick to welcome the company, and developers say the local operation is expected to add more than 200 jobs next year as Hermeus scales up prototypes and support teams.
Why Officials Say The South Bay Matters
El Segundo’s mayor has said the city actively helped market the site and embraced Hermeus’ decision, pointing to a broader cluster of more than 40 aerospace and tech companies that have gravitated to the South Bay. Hackman Capital, which converted the former Northrop Grumman complex into modern offices, has poured money into making the campus a magnet for hardware-heavy tenants, and brokers argue the Hermeus lease is one more sign the area is regaining its status as a serious hardware and manufacturing corridor.
For locals, that means keeping an eye out for job postings, construction and permitting activity, and test-flight chatter as Hermeus tries to knit together operations in El Segundo, its Atlanta production line, and its Jacksonville test center into one high-speed ecosystem.
