João Montenegro, head and shoulders, in a light blue shirt against a black background

Hi, I’m João.

AI and hardware entrepreneur, in Lisbon.

I am the founder and CEO of Darkmatter AI Labs, where we build AI systems for large clients in aerospace, retail and insurance. I work hands-on across product design, software development and engineering, and I design hardware: a 3D printer, aircraft studies and spacecraft concepts.

13
projects in Work, 2010 to 2026: 1 of 5
winners of ESA’s 2023 spacesuit competition: 6
awards for BEETHEFIRST: 2016–22
co-founder of ubbu

Book a call Darkmatter AI Labs ↗

Clients and partners

Hardware, from a printer to a spacecraft.

I use AI for modelling, simulation and engineering analysis as part of designing and evaluating physical systems.

The return capsule in entry at sunset, its heat shield glowing, the plasma trail streaming back toward the Sun on the Earth's limb, green aurora curtains over the horizon

Nazaré. Space laboratory.

The StarKnight suit standing at a three-quarter angle, alone in a dark studio

StarKnight. ESA winner, 2023.

The white, navy and red coaxial helicopter alone on a dark studio floor

Spiro. Two aircraft.

The BEETHEFIRST printer in a dark studio: a white ring with a black recess around a window, printing a blue part

BEETHEFIRST. A 3D printer.

Draco seen from above, nose up, in a dark studio

Draco. A sports car body.

projects in Work, 2010 to 2026

All work

Writing.

Space and AI: what changes when it becomes cheap to bring mass back down from orbit, what a conflict in orbit would involve, whether it is easier to send a copy of a mind to another star than a body.

How to go interstellar, the series poster

The sky from my backyard.

I photograph the sky with a small telescope and publish what the measurements support: four asteroids recovered where they were predicted, one comet signal that held up, one that did not.