Well, we all saw it coming. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Shield AI was in talks to raise $1B. Turns out the autonomy startup—and investors—had a bit more money on their mind.
This morning, Shield AI announced that it has raised a $2B Series G led by Advent International and JPMorgan’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, valuing the company at a whopping $12.7B. A chunk of that cash will fund the acquisition of simulation software firm Aechelon Technology.
The funding round—which more than doubles the company’s valuation—was first reported by the New York Times.
If anyone was betting that 2026 would be a bit chiller in defense tech land than 2025, think again. The off-switch for the money spigot is nowhere to be seen.
Heavy hitter: Shield AI needs no introduction. The company, founded in 2015 by brothers Brandon and Ryan Tseng, has become a power player in the autonomy scene on both the software and hardware side of the ball.
- Shield AI’s flagship platform, the 9-foot-tall V-BAT Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAV, has been increasingly popular with both the US (especially the Coast Guard, which credits it with aiding over $1B in drug seizures in 2025) and foreign militaries, ranging from Japan and India to Armenia. Over half of Shield AI’s revenue this year is expected to come from international customers.
- In October, they announced the X-BAT autonomous VTOL fighter jet (or mega-CCA), measuring 26 feet long with a 39-foot wingspan (and a $27M price tag). The company says it’ll have a 2,000-nautical-mile range and a service ceiling of 50,000 feet, just shy of the F-15’s roughly 60,000-foot ceiling. Full mission capability testing is expected in 2028.
- All of that is powered by Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software, which they also sell as a standalone product to other hardware developers, including those working on the Air Force’s CCA program. Hivemind accounts for about half of Shield AI’s business.
Drone dollas: Shield AI raised $240M at a $5.3B valuation last March, so the company’s $2B Series G and $12.7B valuation is a big jump in its funding and valuation, to put it lightly. Per the company, this latest haul of cash will fuel development of the X-BAT and the acquisition of Aechelon Technology.
A bit more about that:
- Aechelon, founded in 1998 (ancient, in defense tech terms), makes defense-focused simulation and synthetic environment software, specializing in high-fidelity image generation, sensor and radar simulation, mixed-reality flight training environments, and increasingly, AI/ML training for autonomy software.
- According to the company, its software has supported over 1,000 US military operational flight training systems, including the Pentagon’s Joint Simulation Environment (JSE), and many others across NATO and other US allies.
- Bringing Aechelon into the Shield AI fam will “accelerate the work we are doing with Hivemind” and “help advance our Hivemind Foundation Model for Defense, which is trained in simulation and continuously refined through real-world operations,” Shield AI CEO Gary Steele said in a statement.
“V-BAT is rapidly scaling and delivering outcomes for militaries around the world. X-BAT is a huge opportunity to redefine air power in the fighter jet market. Hivemind is one of the most experienced and proven AI pilots in the world,” Advent International chair David Mussafer added. “Shield AI is a rare asset with the potential to deliver strong growth over the coming years,…[and] we couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Shield AI team.”
And now we wait for the Anduril raise…