Anduril to “Hyperscale” Defense Production
Defense tech startup Anduril has raised $1.5 billion in Series F funding, with which it aims to supercharge defense manufacturing—to the tune of “tens of thousands of autonomous weapons” per year (Wired).
The big picture: This successful funding round, which puts Anduril’s valuation at $14 billion, is partly a response to changes in battlefield technology, as drones, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies play an ever-expanding role.
- It also reflects the widespread concern that the U.S. isn’t producing enough armaments to maintain its military superiority on the global stage.
What they’re doing: The company has developed an AI-powered manufacturing platform called Arsenal and will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into its new facility, called Arsenal-1, in an as-yet-unknown U.S. location.
- “Anduril says that Arsenal will follow the kind of approach used in high-tech manufacturing by companies like Apple and Tesla. This means designing products with manufacturing in mind and using software to monitor and optimize manufacturing operations,” according to Wired.
- Anduril’s successful funding round follows several other key achievements, including winning “a contract to develop a new kind of drone for the U.S. Air Force and Navy, called the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which will have sophisticated autonomous and swarming capabilities.”
The last word: “America and our allies need to rebuild the arsenal of democracy, and we believe that is possible, but only if we adopt a fundamentally new approach to how we define, design and produce military power,” the company said in its recent manifesto.