Anduril Industries, Inc. is an American military technology company specializing in the development of advanced autonomous systems. The company was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joe Chen, and Brian Schimpf. Anduril sells systems to the U.S. Department of Defense which incorporates artificial intelligence and robotics. Anduril's major products include unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and counter-UAS (CUAS), semi-portable autonomous surveillance systems, and networked command and control software. It is privately owned, and as of May 2026, the company has a valuation of $61 billion.
In January 2025, Anduril announced a series of Arsenal projects, hyperscale manufacturing facilities designed to manufacture advanced autonomous weapons systems faster than near-peer American geopolitical rivals. The first, termed Arsenal-1, is undergoing construction near Columbus, Ohio, in concert with Ohio State University as of late 2025 and early '26. The second, termed Arsenal-2, is undergoing construction in Baltimore County, Maryland in concert with the Department of Defense.
History Investor meetups
In June 2014, Palmer Luckey, the creator of the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, attended a retreat on Sonora Island, British Columbia, hosted by Founders Fund, an early Oculus investor. Luckey met Trae Stephens, 30, who had recently been persuaded to leave Palantir and join Founders Fund by its leader, Peter Thiel. Luckey and Stephens discovered a shared interest in seeking defense contracts for companies built like tech startups. "Stephens found it ridiculous almost no venture-backed companies worked closely with the government; with its billions of dollars to spend", aside from Palantir and SpaceX, the latter of which Founders Fund had been an early investor into. "Stephens' goal was to fund a company to join that duo", but found it difficult to accomplish in Silicon Valley.
In 2015, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security opened Silicon Valley offices. "In 2017, as part of an initiative which began the previous year, the Defense Department unveiled the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, known as Project Maven, to harness the latest AI research into battlefield technology, starting with a project to improve image recognition for drones operating in the Middle East."
The idea for a software startup in the realm of high-technology military applications was raised by Stephens and some of his colleagues at Palantir. After the 2016 presidential election, Stephens was appointed to the Defense transition team and later joined the Defense Innovation Board, a central part of a reform effort spearheaded by Ashton Carter, defense secretary under President Barack Obama. Stephens, who was also looking for a defense startup Founders Fund could invest in, began to recruit employees for Anduril alongside Luckey, who was looking to make use of the money he obtained from selling Oculus VR to Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion.
Luckey left Facebook in March 2017, alleging he had been fired for his pro-Trump beliefs, which Facebook denies. Stephens and Luckey recruited employees from Palantir and Oculus, and planned to employ Luckey's developmental approach with the Oculus headset to combine low-cost hardware components with sophisticated software. Luckey thought this would be easy because, he said, "the defense industry has been stagnant for decades".
Since 2017 Anduril was incorporated in April 20, 2017 and seeded by Founders Fund. There were at least four founders: Stephens, Luckey, Matt Grimm, and Joe Chen. Brian Singerman led a seed funding round. Luckey, Stephens, and Grimm pitched their company to the directors of Palantir. One of them, Brian Schimpf, decided to join, and became the fifth co-founder (and CEO)."
In June 2017, Anduril executives contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) California office to pitch low-cost border security. DHS introduced them to border officials. The San Diego Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office eventually paid Anduril to test a new border system.
In June 2018, Lattice surveillance towers were informally tested on a Texas rancher's private land. Lattice was operated remotely by an Anduril technician. CBP worked on pilot programs with Anduril in Texas and San Diego.
In June 2019, the UK Royal Navy purchased Lattice as part of a modernization initiative. Anduril also signed a contract with the Royal Marines. In 2019, advocacy group Mijente reported a $13.5 million Marine Corps contract to install Anduril systems at military bases in Japan and the United States, including one that abuts the Mexico–United States border. In 2019, more towers were installed in CBP's San Diego sector. CBP ordered more for Texas, and started a pilot program at Montana and Vermont border sites for a cold-weather variant. In a September 2019 funding round, Anduril secured in funding from various venture capital firms, including Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz. The company was valued at over at the time, a four-fold increase from its 2018 valuation.
In July 2020, Anduril received in funding from venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, for U.S. military projects. A company representative said the company's valuation increased to billion. The Post reported that Anduril had received around for unclassified contracts, a small amount in the defense industry. In July 2020, Anduril's annual revenue was estimated at . Also In July, CBP and Anduril entered a five-year $25M contract to deploy sentry towers for CBP. In September, Anduril received another $36M from CBP for surveillance towers. CBP planned to install 200 towers by 2022. In October, Google began integrating Google Cloud technology with Anduril technology to help AI implementations by CBP's Innovation Team. In 2020, Anduril was one of more than 50 companies selected by the U.S. Air Force to help develop the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) under a contract worth up to $950 million.
In February 2021, The Times reported that the Royal Marines had been testing Anduril's Ghost drone to provide video of targets for frontline use. In April, Anduril acquired Area-I, a company producing drones capable of being launched from larger aircraft. Area-I had previously contracted for U.S. government agencies, including the Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA. Area-I was an Atlanta-based technology startup which developed surveillance drones for government clients. It was founded by aerospace researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and was funded largely through government contracts, including SBIR. In June, Anduril announced in Series D funding from Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and D1 Capital Partners. This increased their valuation to $4.6bn, double that of July 2020. The funding round was led by investor and entrepreneur Elad Gil. In July, the BBC reported that the Royal Navy had used Ghost drones in an autonomous drone test to provide live feeds of targets.
In June 2022, Anduril entered a contract with the United Kingdom Home Office titled ‘CCTC – Common Operating Picture and Command Interface (COPCI)’, valued at £16,087,370; it was renewed at £21,086,291 as of 2025. As part of this contract, at least fourteen Maritime Sentry Towers have been identified between Hastings and Ramsgate.
In September 2023, Anduril engineers tested a live warhead on the Altius-700M. Anduril said that the "system was accurate and effective against the chosen target".
In January 2024, Anduril was one of five vendors contracted by the US Air Force for the development of collaborative combat aircraft. In April 2024, the U.S. Army Defense Innovation Unit selected Anduril to develop a software framework, for robotic combat vehicle payloads.http://www.defensenews.com 3 April 2024: Anduril to supply robotic combat vehicle software to US Army In August Anduril raised billion in series F funding led by Founders Fund and Sands Capital, valuing the company at $14bn. The proceeds were to establish manufacturing facilities for autonomous weapons systems.
On July 12, 2024, Anduril and its executives were sanctioned by the Chinese government due to arms sales over Taiwan.
In January 2025, Anduril Industries announced plans to build a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Pickaway County, Ohio to produce weapons systems, including aerial and maritime drones equipped with its Lattice software. The Lattice platform had been selected by the U.S. Space Force in 2024 for use in surveillance networks. Anduril has also collaborated with OpenAI to enhance defence systems designed to protect military personnel from drone threats.
In June 2025, Anduril Industries raised from venture capital firms, including Founders Fund and 1789 Capital. In March 2026, Anduril was reported to raise a $4 billion round at a $60 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital.
In November 2025, Anduril and Emirati weapons company Edge Group formed the "Edge–Anduril Production Alliance", focused on autonomous weapons systems.
In May 2026, the company announced it had raised $5 billion in investment from multiple investors, including Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The investment round valued the company at $61 billion.
Acquisitions Anduril has grown, in part, through various acquisitions of other companies developing products for the US Government: April 2021: Anduril acquired drone developer Area-I. September 2021: Anduril acquired Copious Imaging. February 2022: Anduril acquired Dive Technologies. June 2023: Anduril acquired rocket engine company Adranos, giving the company access to technology for developing solid rocket motors for missiles and space launch. September 2023: Anduril acquired North Carolina-based autonomous aircraft developer, Blue Force Technologies, which was developing what would become Anduril's Fury entry into the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. December 2024: Anduril acquired the radar and C2 businesses of Numerica. July 2025: Anduril acquired communications systems company Klas. October 2025: Anduril acquired American Infrared Solutions. March 2026: Anduril acquired space intelligence company ExoAnalytic Solutions. October 2026: Anduril acquired underwater acoustics company Popoto Modem.
Products
Altius
The Anduril Altius (Agile Launched, Tactically-Integrated Unmanned System) is a series of fixed-wing, tube-launched unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Area-I, an Atlanta-based subsidiary that Anduril acquired in April 2021. Altius 600 accepts a modular payload on the nose. It can be launched from different launchers and platforms, including C-130 aircraft, UH-60 Blackhawks, and various ground vehicles, as well as larger UAVs, including the MQ-1C Grey Eagle and Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie stealth UCAV.
Anvil Anvil, also known as Interceptor, is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle quadcopter designed principally to attack other unmanned aerial vehicles. After launch, Anvil locates target drones using computer vision, and can be commanded to ram targets by its operator. The drone reportedly can reach speeds of up to . Anduril is developing versions to attack larger targets such as helicopters or cruise missiles. Anvil can be integrated into Anduril's Lattice system.
The interceptor was conceptualized over a weekend, as a drone that could identify and ram hostile objects. After sending a video to the Pentagon of a working prototype, the U.S. military made a small order for testing. Anduril publicly announced the drone in October 2019.
As of 2019, Anduril had delivered the Anvil to the United States and United Kingdom militaries. Anduril was contracted to deploy the drone to overseas combat zones.