Research
Both the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence were incubated at Vulcan Inc.
Started at Vulcan Inc. in 2001, the Allen Brain Atlas project sought to understand the connections between genes and brain functioning. From the project's research, Paul Allen created the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2003 with a $100 million donation.
Project Halo came next. The project ran from 2002 to 2013, with the goal of creating a "digital Aristotle" that can correctly answer queries about scientific information, using artificial intelligence. The project led to a number of spinoff technologies, including the wiki software bundle SMW+, the Semantic Inferencing on Large Knowledge (SILK) project and the Automated User-Centered Reasoning and Acquisition System (AURA). From Project Halo's results, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence was created.
Vulcan Productions
Vulcan Productions produces films, digital programs and outreach initiatives. Its programs have won awards including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Emmy Award, and the Grammy Award. Vulcan Productions closed in 2021.
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Technology
Vulcan Inc. has also directly led some technology projects.
In 2003, Vulcan began developing the Vulcan FlipStart, a subnotebook with a 5.6-inch screen. The company began to manufacture and sell the FlipStart in March 2007, and ceased production in May 2008.
Vulcan Spectrum, a branch of Vulcan Inc., participated in the United States 2008 wireless spectrum auction, and paid US$69 million for "A Block" spectrum in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area, and US$43.6 million for "A Block" spectrum in Portland-Salem.
Vulcan Aerospace is a subsidiary of Vulcan Inc. set up in 2015 to help achieve Paul Allen's desire to make commercial space travel more convenient and less expensive. Vulcan Aerospace oversaw the development of Stratolaunch Systems project, an air launch system being developed 2010–2019 to transport payloads to low Earth orbit using a large carrier aircraft. In 2016, initial test flights were projected to take place as early as 2016.
In September 2016, Vulcan Aerospace President Chuck Beames left his role leading the effort and was replaced by an interim executive director: "Jean Floyd, the CEO of Vulcan’s Stratolaunch Systems."
Although the super-sized Stratolaunch carrier aircraft first flew on April 13, 2019, at the Mojave Air and Space Port in a 2 h 29 min flight,
Vulcan announced in May 2019 that the company would cease operations.
The assets of Stratolaunch, including all intellectual property and the 385 feet (117 m)-wingspan carrier aircraft—"the world’s largest aircraft to fly"—were put up for sale for US$400 million in June 2019. Stratolaunch was sold and the new owner was identified in December 2019 to be Cerberus Capital Management. Stratolaunch continued to operate under new ownership.
