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Business Insider's top picks, listed alphabetically, of startups you could bet your career on in 2024. Shield AI HQ: San Diego Total raised: $1.1 billion What it does: Shield AI makes an autonomous pilot that operates aircraft, from fighter jets to drones, in high-risk settings, without the need for remote operators or GPS. What makes it promising: The defense sector is ripe for disruption, with more funding flowing into defense startups in the past three years than all the venture capital dispersed from 2013 to 2020, according to PitchBook data. Shield AI is posed for success in this defense renaissance. The company is set apart by creating software for virtually any aircraft, which is why its president Brandon Tseng likens its technology to the Android operating system. It also has a self-piloted drone in use by the US and Israeli military, The New York Times reported. Investors are moving in. In December, Shield AI expanded its latest funding round with another $300 million, including $200 million in debt from Hercules Capital.
Shield AI, the defense technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, today announced the expansion of their Series F funding round to a total of $500 million. An additional $100M in equity, raised at the Series F price, and $200M in debt from Hercules Capital were added to the initial $200M in equity closed in November. “AI pilots are becoming a strategic conventional deterrent in class with our aircraft carriers and guided missile submarines. But interestingly, it’s the first strategic deterrent that is software-defined and has only recently become possible because of advances in AI and compute power. That’s a huge paradigm shift for aerospace and defense,” said Ryan Tseng, Shield AI’s CEO and Cofounder. “The defense and investment communities are seeing the profound impact AI pilots will have on national security and global stability. AI pilots solve the electronic warfare (GPS- and communications-jamming) problem that’s devastating 10,000 drones per month in the Russia-Ukraine War, and they enable the operating concept of intelligent, affordable mass, where swarms of affordable aircraft can accomplish missions normally reserved for expensive, exquisite aircraft,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s President, Cofounder, and former Navy SEAL.
Shield AI, the defense technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, today announced that Shivon Zilis, Director of Special Projects at Neuralink and former Open AI board member, has joined its board of directors. “When I first met Shield AI’s founders, I immediately knew I wanted to work with them. It was so clear that in order to continue our way of life we’d have to be vigilant about creating AI-based deterrents and I had been looking for a team who cared about this mission to its core and had an incredible moral compass, which I was grateful to find in Shield AI,” Zilis said. “It’s wonderful for things to come full circle after getting to work with them as an investor seven years ago and now formally getting to work with the team as a member of the board.” Zilis brings 15+ years of successful operational and investment experience in the AI and autonomy fields, advising at several of the world’s most successful AI companies as both an investor and a member of executive teams “Shivon has extensive expertise building and leading teams to solve the world’s hardest AI problems. She brings a unique blend of deep technical, investment, and operating expertise to our team,” said Ryan Tseng, CEO and co-founder of Shield AI. “She was one of the earliest investors in Shield AI and has been passionate about our mission to protect service members and civilians with artificially intelligent systems since we first talked about it in 2016.”
Shield AI, the defense technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, today announced it has raised $200 million in Series F funding in an oversubscribed funding round. This funding, led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) and co-led by Riot Ventures, with participation from Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and returning investors Disruptive and Snowpoint, values Shield AI at $2.7 billion. “We’re building the world’s best AI pilot to ensure air superiority and deter conflict because we believe the greatest victory requires no war. This funding accelerates the scaling of Shield AI’s products, enabling the deployment of intelligent, affordable mass—the most important non-nuclear deterrent for the next 30 years,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s President, co-founder, and former Navy SEAL. Shield AI builds an AI pilot called Hivemind, which enables teams of intelligent aircraft to operate autonomously in high-threat environments on the edge, without the need for remote operators, command inputs, or GPS. The technology approach is similar to those in the self-driving car industry and its software stack is aircraft agnostic, allowing Shield AI to provide autonomy to a variety of form factors across the aerospace industry.
Shield AI, the defense technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, today announced the official launch of its V-BAT Teams product. V-BAT Teams enables multiple V-BATs to autonomously execute missions in electronically contested environments while reading and reacting to adversaries, the environment, and the other V-BATs executing the mission. It comes in the form of a modular Nvidia GPU upgrade running Hivemind, Shield AI’s AI pilot, which is loaded into the modular payload bay of the V-BAT. “V-BAT Teams is the first step in intelligent, affordable mass not as a concept, but as an operational product. We’re starting with a team size of four V-BATs, but that number will double annually for the foreseeable future. Four V-BATs that work together in electronic warfare environments and as part of a human-machine team are an incredible force multiplier,” commented Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s co-founder, President, and former Navy SEAL. “Ultimately, V-BAT Teams – as the team size increases – give squads the combat power of a battalion, or battalions the combat power of a corps or division.” V-BAT Teams enables warfighters to have 24/7 comprehensive coverage over large geographic regions to find, fix, and target thousands of enemy assets in operational, electronically contested areas at an affordable price.
“Many people don’t realize the scope of conflict in the world – before Ukraine, 84 million people were displaced by violence and persecution, up from 39 million in 2011,” Ryan Tseng said. “There aren’t that many opportunities to contribute to technologies that meaningfully address humanity’s great challenges – or that create the general conditions for human achievement. When you work on AI pilots for defense – you are working on the most important and disruptive defense technology of the next thirty years – and are empowering our country and allies to advance security, stability, and peace.” Read more from TechCrunch.
No other defense-technology company is recruiting AI engineering talent faster for, and investing more in, aviation autonomy and intelligent swarming than Shield AI. Our world-class teammates made our inclusion on CB Insights Top AI 100 possible. More proof we're building the world's best AI pilot!
Of 2,500 American businesses founded between 2012 and 2019, Shield AI clinched a position in the top 5% on Forbes' “Best Startup Employers” list!
Shield AI and Brazil's VSK Tactical sign deal to support Brazil, includes the purchase of V-BAT 128 unmanned aircraft.
Shield AI has been awarded the maximum amount through the Air Force’s Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) Program, in conjunction with Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), to accelerate the integration of its combat-proven Hivemind™ autonomy software into various military and commercial platforms.
