Drew Baglino launches heat pump startup Sadi Thermal Machines

Drew Baglino, a former Tesla executive, has founded a heat pump startup called Sadi Thermal Machines. According to corporate filings in Delaware and California, the company was formed in June 2025. Sadi Thermal Machines shares its headquarters in Scotts Valley, California, with Heron Power, a startup also founded by Baglino that sells solid-state transformers—a technology sold by Heron Power. The name of the startup is an apparent reference to Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, the French physicist whose work inspired the company name. While details about the venture’s operations are limited, Sadi Thermal Machines appears to employ several Tesla alumni, according to a review of LinkedIn and a source familiar with the startup.

Before establishing Sadi Thermal Machines and Heron Power, Baglino spent nearly two decades at Tesla, eventually leaving the company in April 2024. During his tenure, he rose to senior vice president and focused on core energy technologies, including thermal management systems. Baglino is cited as an inventor on a patent for a thermal management system that operates two coolant loops—one to cool the battery and another to cool drivetrain components. To manage these loops, his team developed three-way and four-way valves that give the system control over component temperatures. This work laid the design principles for the octovalve, Tesla’s thermal management system for vehicles, which manages cabin, battery, and motor temperatures.

The move into residential systems builds on concepts Baglino previously discussed. During a 2022 Tesla earnings call, executives, including Baglino and CEO Elon Musk, discussed the potential for residential heat pumps that could handle both heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and water heating. On the call, Baglino noted that building a heat pump for a home would be easier than doing so for a vehicle, which is constrained by mass, volume, and energy. While Musk stated that Tesla intended to build such a system but would not commit to a specific timeframe, Baglino, the former Tesla exec and Heron Power CEO, encouraged others to proceed, stating, “People should do it anyway.” With Sadi Thermal Machines, Baglino appears poised to act on that sentiment.

Why it matters

This is the second company founded by Baglino in the two years since he left Tesla, where he previously oversaw the development of core energy technologies, including heat pumps.