Earendil

Earendil, LLC is a California-based hardware security startup founded on July 9, 2024 by Mehmet Sencan, a Caltech-trained applied physicist with over a decade of experience in chip and manufacturing technology. The company is headquartered in Tustin, California and develops hardware tamper response systems designed to provide physical security for AI compute infrastructure, particularly high-value GPU clusters. Earendil's primary product is SquibSink, a hardware tamper response system that provides instant, irreversible physical destruction of computing hardware upon tampering attempts. The system uses military-grade components and leverages existing industrial detonators positioned within modified GPU heatsinks to deny reverse engineering and secret extraction before adversaries can access critical components. SquibSink keeps unique device identifiers confidential and non-clonable, supporting export control compliance, gray-market prevention, and counterfeit protection. The system is designed for large-scale implementation across GPU arrays and custom hardware configurations, with applications spanning defense, aerospace, and proprietary technology sectors. Earendil's work is closely connected to the Flexible Hardware-Enabled Guarantees (flexHEG) ecosystem. FlexHEGs are mechanisms designed to enable verification and automated compliance guarantees that are multilateral, privacy-preserving, and trustworthy, for agreements regarding the development and use of advanced AI technology. The company received two grants from the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2024 flexHEG round: $778,000 for its Security Layers Project (physical tamper-response hardware) and $564,000 for its Standards Infrastructure Project, totaling $1,342,000. Prior to founding Earendil, Sencan was brought on by Atlas Computing, an AI safety nonprofit, with support from the AI Safety Tactical Opportunities Fund (AISTOF), to advance tamper response mechanism components through technology readiness levels. His approach emphasizes using proven industrial components rather than custom-engineered destructive solutions, balancing effectiveness, cost, reliability, and implementation simplicity. Sencan's background includes a BS in Applied Physics from Caltech, where he worked in Professor Axel Scherer's laboratory on implantable electrochemical biosensors, and holds patents assigned to Caltech in that field. He previously served as COO of Integrated Medical Sensors and co-founded Wireless Diagnostic Systems. In August 2025, he presented at BSides Las Vegas on thwarting key extraction and supply chain attacks through physical destruction of GPUs. Earendil also maintains a technical blog covering topics including extending hardware security standards for AI development, privacy-preserving compute auditing, and technical implementation paths for safe AI hardware.