Founders Fund, a venture capital firm backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, led a new funding round, committing $1 billion, according to the company's CEO, Trey Stevens.
He added that this is the largest check in Founders Fund history. Stevens, the co-founder of Anduril, is also a partner at Founders Fund.
Anduril makes a range of products aimed at bolstering American defenses. These include armed drones and the software to control them, as well as augmented reality helmets for the military. The firm, based south of Los Angeles, has said it wants to reshape America’s national defense by focusing on technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence.
Stevens said the goal of the latest funding round was to build a company that could solve “the biggest challenges for the national security community.” As the startup ramps up its capacity to produce more equipment, “we felt it was really important to strengthen the balance sheet and make sure we had the ability to direct capital to these manufacturing and production challenges that we’re working on.”
The new funding comes after Anduril raised $1.5 billion last year to build a large factory that can rapidly produce autonomous weapons. The company has selected a 5-acre site in Columbus, Ohio, for a factory called Arsenal-1, which will mass-produce aerial and naval drones, sensors and other products.
Source: Bloomberg
