Anduril doubles valuation as defense tech funding boom continues

Defense technology startup Anduril said Wednesday it has raised $5 billion, doubling its valuation to $61 billion. funding round It is managed by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

CEO Brian Schimpf said in a statement that the company will invest “aggressively” in manufacturing, research and infrastructure to scale U.S. defense systems as it faces increasing geopolitical risks.

The latest round of funding more than doubles Anduril’s valuation from $30.5 billion ahead of its widely anticipated IPO.

Oculus headset creator Palmer Luckey, who founded the company in 2017, said in an interview with CNBC last year that he would “absolutely” take the company public.

“When we founded Anduril in 2017, defense was not a category that attracted significant venture investment. This has changed meaningfully over the last few years,” Schimpf said.

Defense tech startups have seen a huge surge in funding, including recent rounds from Shield AI, autonomous ship maker Saronic, and several space companies.

Anduril is also positioning itself as a key beneficiary of the U.S. government’s race to reindustrialize the U.S. military under President Donald Trump.

The company recently joined a group of companies It is working on space interceptors for Trump’s ambitious $185 billion missile defense system called Golden Dome.

This year, Anduril signed a 10-year corporate contract with a $20 billion ceiling with the U.S. Army and acquired a space missile and satellite tracking company.

Anduril is also one of several Silicon Valley-backed companies shaking up the defense contracting space dominated by companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and others. RTX.

Ministry of Defense on Wednesday announced that he made a deal Andruil, together with CoAspire, leidosand Region 5 will purchase more than 10,000 low-cost hypersonic missiles over the next three years.