Anduril is nearing the size of defense industry giants

[william]

Defense company Anduril, which builds autonomous drones, virtual reality headsets, and other AI-powered technologies for the U.S. military and its allies, said it had closed an oversubscribed $2.5 billion funding round on Thursday. The fundraise marks an important milestone for the defense tech industry, which has swelled in size as the Department of Defense embraces venture capital-funded startups in an effort to supply its forces with the latest, cutting-edge technologies as global tensions rise.

As geopolitical tensions have grown around the globe, there has been renewed vigor to bolster the U.S. Navy, Army, and Air Force’s equipment and fleets. In the last few years, Anduril has been awarded a number of highly-competitive contracts for the U.S. military, including a program with General Atomics to build up to $9 billion worth of autonomous unmanned aircraft, as well as a 10-year, $642.2 million contract with the U.S. Navy to build counter-drone systems. Earlier this year, Anduril took over Microsoft’s augmented reality headset project, worth up to $22 billion, that will deliver some 120,000 headsets to the U.S. Army.

With massive funding round and $31 billion valuation, Anduril is nearing the size of defense industry giants it wants to displace

Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund wrote its largest check ever into the company.

fortune.com