# Joris Poort

> Joris Poort is the co-founder and CEO of Rescale, the cloud high-performance computing platform that became the world's first unicorn in cloud HPC. Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and educated at the University of Michigan, University of Washington, and Harvard Business School, Poort spent years at Boeing engineering the 787 Dreamliner before co-founding Rescale in 2011 through Y Combinator. Under his leadership Rescale has raised over $284 million—including a $115M Series D in April 2025—and now serves the world's leading aerospace, automotive, energy, and life sciences enterprises with 1,250+ simulation applications across 500+ global cloud datacenters.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Rescale
- **Organizations:** Rescale, Y Combinator, World Economic Forum Global Innovators Community
- **From:** Nijmegen, Netherlands
- **Nationality:** Dutch-American
- **Education:** B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Minor Applied Mathematics (magna cum laude), University of Michigan, M.S. Aerospace Engineering (magna cum laude), University of Washington, MBA (with distinction), Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Co-founded Rescale — the world's first cloud HPC unicorn — from scratch in 2011, Raised over $284 million in total funding across Series A through D, Built a platform with 1,250+ engineering simulation applications across 500+ global cloud datacenters

## Career timeline

- **1983** — Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands
- **~2001** — Moved to the United States; enrolled at University of Michigan
- **~2005** — Graduated magna cum laude from U of M; joined University of Washington for MS in Aerospace Engineering
- **~2007** — Joined Boeing as structural and software engineer on the 787 Dreamliner program, optimizing tail and wing design using multi-disciplinary optimization and machine learning
- **2010** — Left Boeing; joined McKinsey & Company Amsterdam office as consultant on product development for semiconductor and high-tech sector; enrolled at Harvard Business School
- **2011** — Co-founded Rescale with Adam McKenzie in San Francisco
- **2012** — Rescale completed Y Combinator (W2012 batch); received backing from Sam Altman, Paul Graham, and other YC luminaries
- **2021** — Rescale surpassed $100M in funding; described by industry as the 'dominant company' for cloud HPC
- **2022** — Rescale crossed $200M in total funding at $1B+ valuation — first unicorn in cloud high-performance computing
- **2023** — Named one of Goldman Sachs' Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs at its Builders and Innovators Summit; Rescale joined WEF Global Innovators Community (Unicorn Track)
- **2024** — Spoke at World Economic Forum in Davos on 'Prosperity Through Data Infrastructure'; reconnected with Sam Altman
- **2025** — Rescale secured $115M Series D (April), bringing total funding to over $284M; latest investors include NVIDIA, Foxconn, University of Michigan, and Hanwha

## Achievements

- Co-founded Rescale — the world's first cloud HPC unicorn — from scratch in 2011
- Raised over $284 million in total funding across Series A through D
- Built a platform with 1,250+ engineering simulation applications across 500+ global cloud datacenters
- Attracted backers including Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Peter Thiel, Paul Graham, NVIDIA, and Microsoft
- Rescale named to Y Combinator's Top Companies list for four consecutive years
- Named one of Goldman Sachs' Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs at the 2023 Builders and Innovators Summit
- Selected as WEF Global Innovator (Unicorn Track) at the 2023 Annual Meeting
- Delivered a keynote at World Economic Forum Davos 2024 on AI and data infrastructure
- At Boeing, designed wing optimizations for the 787 Dreamliner saving hundreds of millions of dollars

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Rescale closed $115M Series D led by Applied Ventures, NVIDIA, Foxconn, Hanwha, and others, bringing total funding to over $284M
- **2025-04** — Joris announced Rescale's intent to expand its AI Physics tools suite, targeting 1000x speed improvements in engineering design validation
- **2024-01** — Joris spoke at WEF Davos 2024 on 'Prosperity Through Data Infrastructure' and reconnected with Sam Altman
- **2023-10** — Named among Goldman Sachs' Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs at the Builders and Innovators Summit
- **2023-01** — Rescale joined WEF Global Innovators Community (Unicorn Track) for contributions to sustainable computing

## Links

- Website: https://rescale.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gpoort
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/jorispoort
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqVeUsJ1d3lNWE1FmRj3T16lJTlpUVtHX

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/joris-poort
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-26