The Generalist · May 2026
Interview/profile of Davide Asnaghi covering Diode’s customer traction, hardware thesis, and ambition to make hardware as nimble as software.
Automate circuit board design using AI
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Overview
Diode Computers is an AI-powered hardware company that designs and manufactures custom printed circuit boards from specification to volume production, using a code-first toolchain and human-in-the-loop verification.
Primary product
AI-powered custom PCB design and manufacturing platform
Founded
2024
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
10-20
Industry
Computers and Electronics Manufacturing
Sub-industry
AI-powered PCB design and manufacturing
Offices
19 Morris Ave, Brooklyn, NYC / Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, NY
New York, NY 10012
New York, New York, United States
San Francisco, CA (HQ)
Business model
B2B hardware design services
custom manufacturing
project-based / quote-based pricing
enterprise support / bringup services
Funding
People & investors
Leadership
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-Founder & CTO
Chief of Staff
Work & culture
Engineering-heavy and customer-focused, with a strong emphasis on shipping real boards quickly, rigorous electrical verification, and hiring top-tier hardware/software talent.
Compensation
YC job postings show Staff Electrical Engineer at $140K-$200K plus 0.10%-0.30% equity, and Senior Software Engineer at $140K-$240K plus 0.10%-0.50% equity.
Product & market
Pricing
Tiered project pricing: Small ($10,000 + fab cost), Medium ($20,000 + fab cost), Large ($50,000 + fab cost), Enterprise (custom quote).
Differentiators
- —Code-first PCB design via Zener / PCB Compiler
- —AI-generated manufacturable designs
- —Human-in-the-loop review by experienced electrical engineers
- —Exportable to KiCad, Altium, and Cadence
- —BOM compiler with live cost and availability checks
- —Instant quote and DFM-native routing
- —Open-source toolchain
Technology
Rust
Starlark
Zener DSL
LLMs
Claude
SPICE simulations
KiCad
Altium
Cadence
GitHub
Cal.com
Customers
Physical Intelligence
Saronic
Fortune 100 firms
frontier startups
hardware companies
robotics teams
aerospace teams
Competitors
Altium
Cadence
KiCad
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
$0.5M-$1M (third-party estimate)
Estimated monthly visits
142.2K
Latest news
Andreessen Horowitz · Jul 2025
a16z announced its Series A investment in Diode and highlighted the company’s AI- and production-constraint-aware PCB workflow.
Business Insider · Jul 2025
Business Insider reported Diode’s $11.4M Series A, participation from YC, Caffeinated Capital, and BoxGroup, and its AI-driven PCB design pitch.
Diode blog
Diode described its collaboration with Anthropic/Claude and its Zener-based PCB workflow, including reference designs and internal registry tooling.
Jobs and careers at Diode Computers, Inc.
0 jobs at Diode Computers, Inc.
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