Defense Tech Startup Shield AI Soars To $28.8B Valuation, Up 127% Since March

Shield AI has more than doubled its valuation to $28.8 billion in eight months, up from $12.7 billion in March, after securing a new $1 billion Series H funding round.

The Series H funding round was co-led by Disruptive and Innovation X Advisors, with participation from Advent, the Strategic Investment Group of JPMorganChase’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, Snowpoint Ventures, Apandion, Center15 Capital, and others, the company revealed in a press release.

The firm announced earlier this week that it was buying Echodyne Corp, a company that sells radar sensors to government and commercial agencies. Shield AI plans to use the Series H funding to fund the acquisition.

VC Floods Defense Tech

The company has secured $5.4 billion in equity funding so far, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Point72 Ventures and Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital arm backed by Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg reported.

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a defense-technology startup headquartered in San Diego, California. The company builds autonomous, AI-powered aviation software and unmanned aircraft systems. Its flagship products aim to protect military service members and civilians in hospital and GPS-denied environments. 

Earlier this week, Shield AI announced that it had completed the first full-scale prototype of its autonomous X-BAT fighter jet, marking a major step toward flight testing as the defense technology company targets production in 2029.

Shield AI expects demand for its defense technology to remain strong regardless of changes in congressional control following the midterm elections or the outcome of the U.S. conflict with Iran, CEO Gary Steele told Bloomberg in an interview. He said the company has received bipartisan support, as militaries at home and abroad increasingly turn to AI to improve capabilities while lowering costs.

Steele said the company is looking to raise over $1 billion in early 2027 to fund production of the X-BAT fighter jet. The company has already allocated $200 million to develop the jet, matching a separate $200 million commitment from the U.S. Navy.

Shield AI has roughly 2,300 employees, more than doubling its headcount over the past year. The startup also anticipates revenue will more than double in the fiscal year ending March 2027.

Although Shield AI has established partnerships with commercial companies, its end customers have so far been exclusively government agencies, Steele told Bloomberg. The company’s deployments in countries such as Taiwan and India have helped attract additional foreign government clients, with international markets now accounting for more than half of its revenue, he added.

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