Welcome to Nion. Ground Zero.

My name is Ayak Marial. I am seventeen years old. I am a South Sudanese boy, and I am starting a company called Nion. Before I say anything about drones, or aircraft, or artificial intelligence, or any of the machines we will build — I want to say this first: God is on top. Everything I write here sits beneath that line.

I did not grow up with a lot of promises that were kept. My country is young, and it has been asked to grow up very fast, in public, with everyone watching. A lot of the world sees us and sees only what is missing. I understand that. But I have also seen what is here. I have seen intelligence in the eyes of children who have never been to school. I have seen resilience in mothers who carry more than any person should carry. I have seen a country that, given even a little air, would fly.

Nion is my attempt at that air. It is a promise — not a startup deck, not a pitch, a promise. A promise that a boy from Juba, writing this at seventeen, believes people can build something other people are allowed to believe in.

Why "Nion"

The logo is two circles that touch but never cross. An infinity that refuses to tangle. That is the shape of what I want to build: two things holding each other up without collapsing into each other. Faith and work. People and machines. Africa and the world. South Sudan and the future.

Ground Zero

Nion starts in South Sudan. Ground Zero is not marketing. It means the hardest place we could pick, on purpose. If Nion works here — in a country with fragile infrastructure, hard geography, and fewer safety nets than most — then it works anywhere. Building for the hardest case first is the only honest way I know to build.

What we will do

Nion has four sectors. They are not products. They are responsibilities.

Mendr — bringing people together. Connectivity worldwide, first: an internet that actually reaches the people who need it, above roads that flood and gaps in the ground. And on top of that connection, a social platform — Mendr — built to rewire how people connect. Not another place to perform. A place to actually find each other. If we are going to connect the world, we owe it a better reason to be connected.

Kibo — smart AI devices. Intelligence you can hold. Kibo makes small, durable, affordable AI devices for homes, clinics, farms, classrooms and workshops — machines that keep working when the power blinks and the network stutters. Most of the world will meet AI through a device, not a datacentre. Kibo builds that device.

Terra — ASI and world models. Terra is the deepest work we will do: artificial superintelligence, and the advanced human data used to train world models — models that understand the physical world, terrain, weather, movement, consequence, not just words. Terra is the ground truth every other sector stands on. We will treat that power the way you treat fire indoors: usefully, and carefully. Power without conscience is not a business, it is a warning.

Ozone — autonomous flight. Ozone builds things that fly without a pilot: planes, drones, cargo aircraft — all autonomous, all powered by and aware of the terrain they cross. Roads will not save us in time. If a child in a village needs blood at 2 a.m., the sky should answer before the road does.

The promise

I am seventeen. I know how that sounds. I am not asking anyone to believe me because of my age — I am asking them to believe me because I said it out loud, in public, with my name on it, at the beginning, before there was anything to gain from lying.

Nion will move slowly where it must and fast where it can. We will not fake numbers. We will not launch what we cannot maintain. We will not promise a machine we have not touched. We will hire South Sudanese first, and we will teach loudly. We will keep God on top and ego on the floor.

If you are reading this, you are early. The circle is small on purpose. Join the waitlist, or don’t — but know that this was written on a real day, by a real boy, in a real country, with real intent. That is the whole point.

— Ayak Marial, founder, Nion.
Ground Zero. South Sudan.