Buddy Paul spent more than 40 years on NASA's Space Shuttle program, the THAAD missile-defense system, Airbus aircraft and Lockheed Martin, which named him Inventor of the Year in 2003. VIVIFY says he holds about 250 patents. On July 29 it moved him to Delray Beach to run its new factory in Jupiter, Florida.
"My passion has always been design," Paul said. "I like identifying the need for something and then coming up with the answer for that need. That is what I have always done." He has been at this one a while. "This project is something I have worked on for over 15 years," he said, "and now it's coming together." He talks about the work the way he talks about the engineering. "Thinking outside the box helps solve problems that seem like they do not have a direct answer," Paul said. "That's what this work requires. I'm excited about bringing it to life. It will create a paradigm shift in energy, the cost of energy, and how power can reach people in remote areas and beyond."
Founder and CEO Jason Herring hired him for how he approaches a problem. "His experience spans some of the most technically demanding programs in aerospace, defense, and energy, but what makes him invaluable to VIVIFY is how he thinks," Herring said. "Buddy is one of the rare engineers who can look at an impossible problem and start designing the answer." He calls the Jupiter move the company's jump from fabrication to manufacturing. "Buddy built this platform in fabrication. Jupiter is where we'll manufacture it. That is the milestone. We are not preparing for production. We are in it," Herring said. He marked it by handing Paul a Rolex Milgauss. "The Milgauss was made for people who work where ordinary solutions are not enough," Herring said. "Its lightning bolt represents energy, its resistance to magnetism represents resilience, and its history honors those willing to challenge what the world considers possible."
What VIVIFY says it built
The product is the Flying Pig, a 1MW containerized power unit VIVIFY unveiled in May. Herring says it can be dropped anywhere and switched on fast. "This is a containerized solution that can actually be deployed by helicopter or by plane. It can be, it's in a container, and it could be dropped. And once it's on the ground, it could be up and running in 15 minutes, and provide one megawatt of power, which is enough to provide power 1000 homes," Herring said. "You don't have to be on the grid, so you don't, you're not going to rely on the grid, you can rely on your own infrastructure, your own community, your own handyman, for that matter," he said. "It's unstoppable."
He pitched it as a break from the incumbents. "The big energy companies had a century to get it right. They didn't. We did," Herring said at the May unveiling. "The grid can't follow you everywhere, legacy infrastructure is a constraint America no longer has to accept, and we no longer need permission to build something better." He went further: "We are not here to compete inside a broken system. We are here to make that system obsolete. Energy independence is not a slogan. It is an engineering problem, and the Flying Pig is the answer."
The boldest claim is the fuel. Herring told West Palm Beach station WFLX the machine makes its own. "It's all powered by water, you know, 500 gallons of water could run the system for 20 years," he said. "We can use any type of water; we can use salt water. Or murky water, dirty water, and we don't have to use table water, we don't use clean water." VIVIFY calls the design a "controlled, closed-loop environment." As described, that cannot work: a loop that takes in only water and puts out net power for 20 years would violate the conservation of energy unless there is an energy source the company has not named. VIVIFY, still private, has not published third-party test data to settle it yet.
The Florida pitch
The sell is Florida's storms and its data-center boom. "We didn't build VIVIFY in Florida by accident. Hurricane season, the data center boom, communities being built faster than the grid can reach them: these are Florida realities. We built the answer here because the problem is here," Herring said when Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds toured the headquarters on July 21. Donalds saw a demo of the HOG generator, the CAT emissions system and the Flying Pig, though the visit did not come with a deal. "Hurricane recovery, new community development, the data center wave: these are the issues that define Florida's future," Donalds said after the tour. "The technology I saw today addresses every one of them." Herring ties the same pitch to AI. "This is how we bridge the gap. AI is here. Data centers are coming," he said at a Florida data-center press conference. "The question is whether we power that future in a way that drains communities and resources, or whether we build smarter systems that protect both innovation and quality of life." He casts it as a decade-long project. "At VIVIFY, we have spent more than a decade developing solutions that support progress without sacrificing the communities, natural resources and environmental priorities that make Florida worth protecting," he said. State officials have picked up the theme. "When you talk about safe, reliable and affordable energy, and not just for data centers, not just within this AI paradigm, we have Florida people and Florida companies solving complex problems right now," Lt. Gov. Jay Collins said at the same event.
The company is hiring to match the talk. "We have on schedule right now to hire over 30 engineers in the next 90 days alone. We've just probably hired about 20 people in the last six months, and I think we'll hire probably about, you know, upwards of two to 300 people over the next two to three years," Herring told WFLX. Jacksonville's mayor's office recognized VIVIFY in May after a product test. "VIVIFY's work stands as a powerful bridge between today's urgent energy needs and tomorrow's cleaner, more resilient power systems," said Mike Weinstein, chief administrative officer in Mayor Donna Deegan's office. The city is now exploring powering its new pro-football stadium with the company's units. Both are early interest, not contracts yet.
Herring says he stayed quiet until the hardware worked, and that the company turned down buyers to keep control. "Talk is the cheapest thing the energy industry produces. So I did not brag about our systems until they were production ready," he said. "We have had opportunities to sell this company, but that was never the goal. We built VIVIFY to solve real energy problems. Self-funding has allowed us to protect the technology, protect the mission and keep our focus on Florida-first and America-first energy solutions."
Where the money goes
As VIVIFY is private for now, there is no stock. That being said, the related companies include:
- Electrolyzers: Plug Power (PLUG) , Cummins (CMI) , Ballard Power (BLDP) .
- Data-center power: Bloom Energy (BE) .
- Industrial supply: Air Products (APD) , Linde (LIN) .
- Pedigree: Lockheed Martin (LMT) .
Those names are how you own the hydrogen theme today, as VIVIFY stays private, one to watch if the Flying Pig proves out.
