Arena Physica tore down two DJI drones to answer "can the US build a DJI?"
What stood out to me: DJI has quietly replaced almost every foreign chip in its drones with its own.
Back in 2019, the key chips were American and Dutch. By 2023, DJI had brought the major ones in-house, with one notable exception: the GNSS chip, still sourced from u-blox.
▪️ Mike Horton, who founded
@GEODNET , is also CEO of
@HyfixAI , a US startup building an autonomous systems chip that combines flight control, positioning, AI, and secure communication into one.
▪️ That includes integrated GNSS and positioning, reducing the need for a separate positioning chip like the u-blox setup DJI uses.
▪️ It uses GEODNET's RTK network for precise positioning.
That means Hyfix could become a US alternative to DJI's core silicon, with GEODNET providing the precise positioning underneath it.