Anduril, the defense tech company co-founded by Palmer Luckey, is considering building its first major manufacturing plant, a 5-million-square-foot facility known as “Arsenal-1,” in Arizona, Ohio or Texas, according to someone familiar with the matter. The company, which is developing autonomous drones, planes, and submarines, had announced $1.5 billion at a $14 billion post-money valuation […]
In late September, Shield AI cofounder Brandon Tseng swore that weapons in the U.S. would never be fully autonomous — meaning an AI algorithm would make the final decision to kill someone. “Congress doesn’t want that,” the defense tech founder told TechCrunch. “No one wants that.” But Tseng spoke too soon. Five days later, Anduril
Silicon Valley is debating if AI weapons should be allowed to decide to kill Read More »
About two months ago, Shield AI co-founder Brandon Tseng and one of his employees were in an Uber weaving through Kyiv, Ukraine. They were headed to a meeting with military officials to sell them on their AI pilot systems and drones, when suddenly his employee showed him a warning on his phone. Russian bombs were
Shield AI’s founder on death, drones in Ukraine, and the AI weapon ‘no one wants’ Read More »
After a three-minute hype video, complete with HD footage of drones colliding and military vehicles exploding, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey stepped onto the stage at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, on Tuesday afternoon. In an hour-long conversation with Pepperdine University president Jim Gash, the billionaire raged against America’s adversaries, endorsed completely autonomous weapons, and hinted
Two years ago, Vishaal Mali, Kai Yin and Aiden Jenkins left their engineering jobs at Anduril’s futuristic, high-ceiling office to spend their days in a two-car garage building defense tech startup Salient Motion. For 15 hours a day, the three men soldered airplane parts together, huddled around a propane tank heater (the only source of
On August 5, Palantir’s CTO Shyam Sankar stood in front of about 20 nervous new employees at the company’s Washington, D.C. office and gave a speech you’d expect at a new hire meeting: company mission, Palantir’s history, etc. But there was one part that would’ve seemed unfathomable a few years ago: Sankar evangelized the importance
On August 5, Palantir’s CTO Shyam Sankar stood in front of about 20 nervous new employees at the company’s Washington, D.C. office and gave a speech you’d expect at a new hire meeting: company mission, Palantir’s history, etc. But there was one part that would’ve seemed unfathomable a few years ago: Sankar evangelized the importance
The success of Palantir and Anduril hasn’t just spawned a new generation of aspiring tech companies looking to elbow between Boeing and Lockheed as new defense primes. It has now created a new ecosystem of startups that can serve other defense tech startups. One such startup is Pryzm, founded in 2022 to streamline data around
Last week, Anduril and Palantir delivered the first Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) — picture a tactical military truck designed to sweep up massive amounts of data from sensors in space, as well as across terrains and high altitudes — reaching the first major milestone in its $178 million contract with the U.S. Army.
Anduril reaches milestone with major defense hardware contract Read More »
Anduril Industries has taken another step forward in its quest to become the next great American prime, this time by beating out major defense companies to develop and test small unmanned fighter jet prototypes. The venture capital darling beat out Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman on the deal, under the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat
Anduril moves ahead in Pentagon program to develop unmanned fighter jets Read More »
