Insider Brief
- Shield AI raised $240 million in an F-1 strategic funding round, bringing its valuation to $5.3 billion, with major investments from L3Harris, Hanwha, and Andreessen Horowitz to expand its autonomy software and defense aircraft solutions.
- The company’s Hivemind Enterprise platform enables autonomous operations for drones, fighter jets, and unmanned systems, supporting GPS- and communications-denied environments and accelerating AI-driven autonomy adoption across industries
- Shield AI’s technology is already integrated into F-16s, MQ-20s, and V-BATs, with global operations spanning the U.S., UAE, Ukraine, and Australia, reinforcing its role in defense and aerospace AI autonomy.
PRESS RELEASE — Shield AI, the deep-tech company building state-of-the-art autonomy software products and defense aircraft, has announced it has completed a $240 million, F-1 strategic funding round, raising the company’s valuation to $5.3 billion.
The financing was completed with major participation from strategic investors L3Harris (NYSE: LHX) and Hanwha, as well as participation from existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, U.S. Innovative Technology, and Washington Harbour. The funds will enable Shield AI to expand the deployment of Hivemind Enterprise to OEMs, governments, and companies to empower the larger robotics and drone industrial base to build autonomy products.
“Developing autonomy is both complex and costly. Hivemind Enterprise solves this widely known problem and enables the rapid and efficient proliferation of resilient, high-performance autonomy for intelligent machines across industries,” said Nathan Michael, Shield AI’s Chief Technology Officer. “Hivemind Enterprise is about supercharging the industrial base to build and monetize autonomy, enabling a world of millions of autonomous systems in the next ten years.”
Hivemind Enterprise is an autonomy software suite for developers and organizations building, testing, evaluating, and deploying autonomy for intelligent machines. It accelerates autonomy development by delivering a multi-year head start with platform products, AI-powered toolsets, and leveraging Shield AI’s proven edge autonomy work enabling unmanned systems to operate in GPS- and comms-denied environments. The Hivemind Enterprise product suite includes an integrated autonomy factory, industrial-grade production ready middleware, a rich autonomy catalogue, and seamless mission control, empowering developers to build and own their mission-ready autonomy solutions with unprecedented speed and flexibility.
“The same tools that make up Hivemind Enterprise have already enabled Shield AI to autonomously fly F-16s, MQ-20s, MQM-178s, operate V-BATs in GPS- and communications-denied environments, and have quadcopters explore buildings and tunnels for U.S. and Israeli forces. Partnerships with strategics like L3 Harris and Hanwha further accelerate efforts to proliferate resilient autonomy,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s President and Co-Founder.
Industry leaders recognize the growing demand for autonomy at scale. Christopher E. Kubasik, Chair and CEO of L3Harris, emphasized this:
“The need for advanced autonomy has never been more urgent, and Shield AI is proving that autonomy at scale is not only possible but inevitable. Their commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI-driven autonomy aligns with our Trusted Disruptor strategy, where we partner to accelerate the delivery of AI-enabled solutions and emerging technologies to meet our customers’ needs faster and more efficiently.”
The significant interest and participation from investors are a testament to Shield AI’s momentum after a year of successful milestones and recent technology integration announcements, including mission autonomy work with L3Harris. The company is pleased to have received support from a number of other strategic investors as part of this fundraising round.
About Shield AI
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent, autonomous systems. Its products include Hivemind Enterprise — EdgeOS, Hivemind Pilot, Hivemind Commander, and Hivemind Forge — as well as V-BAT and Sentient Vision Systems (wide-area motion imaging software). With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI’s technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.
Media Contact: Lily Hinz; media@shield.ai
