Flux AI Hardware Engineer

Flux is a browser-based electronics design platform operated by Defy Gravity, Inc. The company says its work began in 2019 with the aim of building an AI-first foundation for hardware design, and it targets makers, hardware startups and engineering teams that need to move from an idea to a manufacturable printed circuit board without a long tool chain.

The platform presents itself as an AI hardware engineer working in three stages: Brainstorm for planning, Design for schematic capture and PCB layout, and Make for sourcing and fabrication outputs. The AI agent drafts schematics, researches parts by reading datasheets, sizes passives, adds pull-ups and decoupling, and routes traces, while ERC and DRC checks run continuously. Boards of up to eight layers are supported, part cost and lead time are shown in the editor, and projects can be imported from Altium, OrCAD/Allegro, KiCad, PADS, Eagle, EasyEDA and other tools. More than one million builders have used Flux.

• AI hardware engineer: agent that plans, drafts schematics, picks parts and routes traces from prompts.
• Schematic and layout suite: full browser-based editor for boards up to eight layers.
• Continuous checks: ERC and DRC run while the design is being edited.
• Supply-aware sourcing: part cost and lead time shown, with ordering from manufacturers.
• Manufacturing outputs: Gerbers, drill files, BoM, pick-and-place and netlists.
• Tool imports: projects from Altium, OrCAD/Allegro, KiCad, PADS, Eagle, EasyEDA and Proteus.

A Vietnamese IoT startup can prototype a sensor node board in days and send fabrication files to a local or Chinese PCB maker. A university electronics lab can teach PCB design in the browser without licence servers. A design house can use the AI agent to draft first-pass schematics for client quotations.

Hardware teams can go from a text prompt to a schematic, routed board and fabrication files in one browser tool, without installing desktop EDA software. Continuous ERC/DRC and datasheet-grounded part selection reduce routine design errors. Live part cost and lead-time data help avoid components that are expensive or hard to source. Real-time collaboration, SSO and project permissions let distributed teams work on the same design.

AI agents are moving into electronics design, compressing schematic and layout work that once needed senior engineers and expensive desktop licences. Vietnam and Southeast Asia have a growing base of IoT and consumer hardware startups and design houses serving export customers, and cloud tools lower the cost of entry for these small teams.

Flux is operated by Defy Gravity, Inc., with terms governed by California law. Work on the platform began in 2019. In February 2026 it announced 37 million USD in new funding led by 8VC, with Bain Capital Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures and Outsiders Fund. Over 1.09 million builders and 6.4 million projects on the platform.