Anduril Industries

What Anduril Industries does

Anduril Industries is a privately held American defense technology company based in Costa Mesa, California. Palmer Luckey founded it in 2017. He had earlier sold the virtual reality startup Oculus to Facebook. Anduril designs and builds autonomous military systems, meaning machines that carry out tasks with limited human control. It sells Lattice, a software platform that it says connects its own weapons with third-party and government systems.

Its hardware includes:

• Fury, an uncrewed jet that the U.S. Air Force designates YFQ-44A and intends to fly alongside crewed fighters
• Barracuda cruise missiles
• Roadrunner and Anvil interceptors for defeating drones
• Ghost Shark, an extra-large uncrewed undersea vehicle co-developed with Australia

In September 2025 Anduril announced a five-year, A$1.7 billion Australian contract for Ghost Shark.

Why it matters

In May 2026 Anduril announced a $5 billion Series H round led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. It announced a $61 billion valuation, double the $30.5 billion set in June 2025. Anduril also published an investor letter saying revenue more than doubled to $2.2 billion in 2025.

In March 2026 the U.S. Army awarded Anduril an enterprise contract with a ceiling of $20 billion over up to 10 years. It folds more than 120 purchasing actions into one agreement. The Army said the figure is a maximum, not an obligated amount. On June 17, 2026, the Air Force chose General Atomics and Anduril to build its first Collaborative Combat Aircraft. That class of drone wingmen includes Fury.

Anduril has also invested in manufacturing. In January 2025 it said it would put close to $1 billion into Arsenal-1, a plant in Columbus, Ohio.

Recent developments

• October 6, 2026: Anduril and the White House announced Arsenal-2, a $6.6 billion shipyard project in Baltimore County, Maryland, to make components for Virginia-class submarines. The total includes up to $2.9 billion from the Navy. Initial operations are expected in 2030.
• September 30, 2026: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named Luckey a co-lead of Project Meridian, a 120-day study of future battlefield technology, alongside Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich. TechCrunch noted that critics could argue the role aligns with the business interests of Musk and Luckey.
• September 15, 2026: Anduril officials said the company cannot start Fury production work until Congress passes fiscal 2027 appropriations.
• July 2026: The Air Force's chief of staff said a YFQ-44A had fired a live AIM-120 air-to-air missile, a first for a U.S. Air Force wingman drone. TechCrunch, citing Reuters, reported that Anduril was in talks to raise money at a valuation of about $100 billion. Anduril said no decisions had been made about future financing.
• June 2026: The State Department approved a possible $1.98 billion sale of Anduril counter-drone systems to Kuwait.

Criticism has centered on reliability. A Wall Street Journal investigation in November 2025, summarized by TechCrunch, reported that:

• more than a dozen drone boats failed in a Navy exercise
• a Fury engine was damaged in a ground test
• a test of the Anvil counter-drone system started a 22-acre fire in Oregon
• Altius drones used by Ukrainian forces crashed or missed targets

Anduril responded that such setbacks are normal when developing weapons and do not point to basic defects in its technology.

What to watch

• Whether Congress funds Collaborative Combat Aircraft production. The stopgap budget Congress passed in September 2026 runs through December 11, 2026.
• Whether the reported fundraising at roughly $100 billion goes ahead.
• How much the Army orders under its $20 billion ceiling.
• What Project Meridian recommends.