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AI-native company examples: six cases and what each one owns

Six AI-native company examples, from an insurance broker to a carmaker, and what each one does differently from a competitor that buys its tools.

By
xvertical team
Published
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11 min
AI-generated illustration of a business park with a row of distinct company premises along one road: an office block, a hangar with drones on its apron, a car plant, a white industrial building and a glass campus.

In short

Six companies show what AI-native looks like in practice: Harper in insurance broking, OffDeal in mergers and acquisitions, AllDigital Specialty in underwriting, Anduril in defense, BYD in cars, and Shopify, which rewrote its rules after the fact. Each one owns a layer of its work that a competitor buys from a supplier. That layer is where the learning stays.

Four of them were founded around that layer. BYD, the oldest company here, extended a decades-old ownership rule to its driving chip. Shopify was an established company when it changed, which is why most readers can act on it. What an AI-native company is has its own article. This one answers a narrower question: which companies are AI-native, and what do they do differently.

Each of the six company sections ends with the one thing that company owns that an AI-enabled competitor would buy. xvertical does not work for any of the companies named here. They are public cases a reader can check.

Harper: what does an AI-native insurance broker own?

Harper owns the customer. It is a licensed commercial insurance brokerage that rebuilt quoting, submission and service around AI and then kept the policyholder. In its February 2026 funding note, the company put the decision in three sentences: “Harper isn’t selling software to legacy brokerages and hoping they figure it out.” “We are the brokerage.” “We own the customer relationship.”

The same note announced “$47 million in combined Seed and Series A funding, led by Emergence Capital.” It said “In 13 months, we’ve served more than 5,000 businesses across America” and that “We already work with 165+ underwriters.” The carriers still take the risk. Harper keeps the relationship and the data from every submission.

Our case on Harper has the full numbers. The one thing Harper owns that an AI-enabled broker buys: the book of customers. A broker that licenses a quoting tool hands the learning to the vendor. In our reading, Harper’s next submission improves Harper’s own system, not a vendor’s.

OffDeal: what does an AI-native investment bank own?

OffDeal owns the mandate. It is a New York boutique that runs sale processes for founder-led companies, with an internal system doing the analyst work. Its Series A announcement of 29 July 2025 states the thesis: “We’re building what Goldman Sachs would have looked like if it was built today - in 2025.”

The round was $12 million, led by Radical Ventures, for $17 million raised in total. The company said it had “launched over 30 sell-side M&A transactions” since its seed round. The Logic reported a $100 million valuation and a target market of companies with $10 million to $100 million of revenue. Deal counts are company figures, not an audited list.

Our case on OffDeal covers the deal pod and the limits of the evidence. The one thing OffDeal owns that an AI-enabled boutique buys: the closed deal. A bank that buys a document generator still pays the analyst pyramid underneath it. OffDeal says its system does the analyst work, and the mandate stays with OffDeal.

AllDigital Specialty: what does an AI-native underwriter own?

AllDigital Specialty owns the decision. By its own description it is an AI-first managing general agent that underwrites management liability insurance, with the risk carried by insurers. In May 2026, Insurance Business reported that roughly 70% of the company’s business is handled autonomously by its AI systems.

The split is the detail that matters. “Of the business that comes through the door, 30 to 40% receives an automated approval from AI systems,” and “another 30% is declined outright by those same systems.” The rest goes to a person. Chief executive Athula Alwis described “a four-stage model of AI maturity: recommendation, assistance, execution, and orchestration” and placed the company at stage three.

The company started AI-first, with nothing to migrate. “We started AI-first, and our architecture was always set up that way,” Alwis said. “We did not have to deal with legacy data issues or the employee resistance you see in certain places.” The figures are the company’s, not a filing.

Our case on AllDigital explains why the automatic decline is the tell. The one thing AllDigital owns that an AI-enabled underwriter buys: the authority to say no inside the system. A carrier that licenses a scoring model keeps the decision in an underwriting guide a person has to read.

Anduril: what does an AI-native defense company own?

Anduril owns Lattice, the command layer, and the hardware it runs on. TechCrunch reported on 13 May 2026 that “Anduril has raised a $5 billion Series H round at a $61 billion valuation,” led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, after the company “doubled revenue in 2025 to $2.2 billion.” The revenue figure is the chief executive’s, from a company blog post.

On 22 June 2026, Breaking Defense reported that the U.S. Army chose Anduril to lead the common data layer baseline for Next Generation Command and Control. Anduril and Palantir provide an “edge-to-cloud data mesh via Anduril’s Lattice and Palantir’s Foundry,” with Raft on data registries. The report also cites an enterprise agreement with a “10-year, $20 billion ceiling.” A ceiling is not revenue.

Our case on Anduril separates the ceiling from the booked work. The one thing Anduril owns that an AI-enabled prime contractor buys: Lattice, the command layer, and the hardware it runs on. A contractor paid cost-plus to write software to a frozen airframe owns the hours. Anduril owns the product.

BYD: what does an AI-native carmaker own?

BYD owns the stack from the battery cell to the driving chip. A UBS teardown of the BYD Seal in September 2023, reported by TechNode, found that “75% of the auto parts, ranging from batteries to power semiconductors, were made in-house.” UBS put the Seal 15% cheaper to build than a Shanghai-made Model 3 and gave BYD a “25% cost advantage over models produced by European automakers even if it were manufactured locally in the continent.”

Rhodium Group reached the same conclusion in February 2026. It found that “BYD manufactures around 80% of Tier 1 components,” more than twice Tesla’s 37%, and that subsidies explain only about 5% of the cost gap. Its verdict: “For BYD, vertical integration is the single most important factor behind the company’s price advantage.”

In May 2026 the same rule reached the model. CnEVPost reported the Xuanji A3, “China’s first 4nm-based smart driving chip,” which “has already entered large-scale mass production, according to the company.” Three chips together deliver “over 2,100 TOPS.” TOPS are trillions of operations a second, and the figures are BYD’s. The report says BYD runs its own wafer fabs. Whether the 4nm chip is made there is not stated.

Our case on BYD has the full table. The one thing BYD owns that an AI-enabled carmaker buys: the driving computer, designed next to the cell and the motor it controls. A carmaker that buys the chip and the driver software buys a supplier’s opinion of its own car.

Shopify: what does a company own when it rewrites its rules?

Shopify owns the rule that AI comes before headcount. In April 2025 its chief executive Tobi Lütke published an internal memo, reported by Workplace Journal, that made AI use a “fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify,” put it into performance and peer reviews, and told teams to show why AI cannot do a job before asking for people. Our article on AI-native companies quotes the memo.

Shopify was not built around AI the way the companies above were. It rebuilt the operating model, which is the harder part for a company that already exists. The one thing Shopify owns that an AI-enabled peer buys: the rule that AI comes before headcount. A peer that buys licences has tools. Shopify has a hiring rule, a review rule and a skill nobody can decline.

What is the pattern across all six?

Each company owns the layer where the learning happens and buys the rest. Harper buys the carrier’s capital and owns the customer. OffDeal buys the buyer’s money and owns the mandate. AllDigital buys the paper and owns the decision. Anduril buys parts from other firms and owns Lattice. BYD owns the chip design. Shopify buys the models and owns the rule.

None of them owns everything. That is the point of owning the specific layer and buying the generic one. The owned layer passes the removal test from our article on AI-native companies. Take the AI out of Harper’s brokerage or AllDigital’s underwriting and there is no manual version to return to. Take it out of a company that added a chatbot and the spreadsheet is still there.

The second pattern is where the learning goes. Every submission at Harper and every decline at AllDigital improves the owner’s system. A company that bought the same capability improves the vendor’s. In our view, that is vertical integration applied to the one asset AI makes valuable: the loop between the work and the model.

The third pattern is the honest boundary. Harper does not carry the risk. OffDeal does not write the cheque. AllDigital decides, and the capital behind the policy is an insurer’s. Anduril’s $20 billion is a ceiling. BYD’s 75% is one car in one teardown. Each case is strongest where it says what it does not own.

Key takeaways

  • Six companies show AI-native in practice: Harper, OffDeal, AllDigital Specialty, Anduril, BYD, and Shopify as an existing company that rewrote its rules.
  • Harper kept the customer instead of selling software to brokers. It announced $47 million in February 2026 and said it had served more than 5,000 businesses.
  • OffDeal kept the mandate. It raised a $12 million Series A in July 2025 at a reported $100 million valuation and says it has launched more than 30 sale processes.
  • Insurance Business reported in May 2026 that roughly 70% of AllDigital’s business is handled autonomously, with 30 to 40% approved and about 30% declined by its systems.
  • Anduril owns Lattice and the hardware it runs on. It raised $5 billion at $61 billion in May 2026 on $2.2 billion of 2025 revenue, by its own account.
  • BYD made about 75% of a Seal in-house in UBS’s 2023 teardown and reported its own 4nm driving chip in mass production in May 2026.
  • Shopify made AI the default before headcount in April 2025, with AI use in performance reviews.

Sources

Each quote above is linked where it appears. This is the full list.

Questions this post answers

Which companies are AI-native?

Public examples include Harper, an insurance brokerage, OffDeal, an investment bank, AllDigital Specialty, an underwriting agency, Anduril in defense, and BYD in cars. Shopify is an existing company that rewrote its operating rules around AI in 2025. Each one owns a layer of its work that a competitor buys from a supplier.

What do AI-native companies do differently?

They keep the layer where the learning happens. Harper kept the customer instead of selling software to brokers. AllDigital's systems approve or decline most submissions without a person, according to Insurance Business's May 2026 report. BYD designs its own driving chip. Shopify requires teams to show AI cannot do a job before adding headcount.

Is Shopify an AI-native company?

Shopify was not born AI-native, but in April 2025 its chief executive made AI use a fundamental expectation of every employee, added it to performance reviews, and required teams to show why AI cannot do the work before asking for headcount. That changes the operating model, not just the tools.

What do AI-native companies still buy?

Each of the six buys the layer it does not need to own. Harper buys the carrier's capital, OffDeal the buyer's money, AllDigital the carrier's paper, Anduril parts from other firms, and Shopify the AI models. BYD makes most of its car and owns the chip design. None of them owns everything. They own the layer where the learning happens.

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