
Defense AI and Autonomy Companies in the United States
Software that fuses sensor data, supports targeting and command decisions, and lets aircraft, vessels and vehicles operate on their own. This is where the most valuable US defense startups sit, and where the Department of Defense (DoD) push to connect sensors and shooters across the services meets commercial AI. Together they have disclosed $13.2B in funding, led by Anduril Industries ($11.4B). The newest round on record is Primordial Labs's Series A (Nov 2026).
Lithuanian soldier with Raven drone and ground station, Hohenfels. Photo: U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Eric Perez, Public domain (PD-USGov-Military-Army).
Latest rounds
| Date | Company | Round | Amount | HQ | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2026 | Primordial Labs | Series A | $18M | New Haven, CT | Autonomy & AI |
| Nov 2026 | Lumbra | Series A | $25M | Washington, DC | Autonomy & AI |
| Oct 2026 | Watchtower Labs | Seed | $35M | Seattle, WA | Autonomy & AI |
| Oct 2026 | ASI (Air Space Intelligence) | Series C | $325M | Boston, MA | Autonomy & AI |
| Sep 2026 | Virtualitics | Series C | $10M | Pasadena, CA | Autonomy & AI |
| Aug 2026 | Smack Technologies | Series B | $61M | Austin, TX | Autonomy & AI |
| May 2026 | Picogrid | Series A | $45M | El Segundo, CA | Autonomy & AI |
| May 2026 | Anduril Industries | Series H | $5B | Costa Mesa, CA | Autonomy & AI |
| Apr 2026 | Scout AI | Series A | $100M | Sunnyvale, CA | Autonomy & AI |
| Feb 2026 | NODA AI | Series A | $25M | Austin, TX | Autonomy & AI |
| Feb 2026 | Breaker | Seed | $6M | Austin, TX | Autonomy & AI |
| Jan 2026 | Onebrief | Series D | $200M | Honolulu, HI | Autonomy & AI |
| Oct 2025 | Govini | Growth | $150M | Arlington, VA | Autonomy & AI |
| Sep 2025 | Auterion | Series B | $130M | Arlington, VA | Autonomy & AI |
| Jul 2025 | Rune Technologies | Series A | $24M | Arlington, VA | Autonomy & AI |
| Jun 2025 | Scale AI | Strategic | $14B | San Francisco, CA | Autonomy & AI |
| Jun 2025 | Applied Intuition | Series F | $600M | Mountain View, CA | Autonomy & AI |
| May 2025 | TurbineOne | Series B | $36M | San Francisco, CA | Autonomy & AI |
| Sep 2021 | Rebellion Defense | Series B | $150M | Washington, DC | Autonomy & AI |
All companies
Full directoryPrimordial Labs
New Haven, ConnecticutMakes Anura, natural-language command and control software that lets crews direct drones, sensors, radios and vehicles by voice.
Lumbra
Washington, District of ColumbiaBuilds LumbraOS, a model-neutral operating system that orchestrates auditable AI agents for analysts on classified Pentagon and intelligence networks.
Watchtower Labs
Seattle, WashingtonBuilds AI decision support software for military commanders, starting with logistics planning for fuel, ammunition and transport routes.
ASI (Air Space Intelligence)
Boston, MassachusettsBuilds AI planning and monitoring software for air traffic, airline and military operations, including command and control for the Army and Air Force.
Virtualitics
Pasadena, CaliforniaBuilds AI readiness and decision software for military maintenance, materiel, personnel and supply chain, grown out of Caltech and NASA JPL research.
Smack Technologies
Austin, TexasTrains military-specific AI models, Omega for command-level reasoning and Alpha for the tactical edge, to support operational decisions.
Picogrid
El Segundo, CaliforniaBuilds Legion, an open integration and data fusion layer that connects sensors, effectors and autonomous systems from different vendors.
Anduril Industries
Costa Mesa, CaliforniaBuilds the Lattice software platform and autonomous systems, from air defense and counter-drone interceptors to uncrewed aircraft and undersea vehicles, plus high-rate manufacturing.
Scout AI
Sunnyvale, CaliforniaTrains Fury, a defense vision-language-action foundation model that lets operators command fleets of drones and ground robots in natural language.
NODA AI
Austin, TexasBuilds URZA, a vendor-agnostic orchestration platform that coordinates mixed fleets of autonomous systems across domains for the military and intelligence community.
Breaker
Austin, TexasDevelops onboard AI agents that let operators command teams of drones and robots by voice over existing radios, even in disconnected environments.
Onebrief
Honolulu, HawaiiBuilds collaborative AI planning software, an operating system for military command staffs to build and update operational plans.
Govini
Arlington, VirginiaBuilds Ark, AI decision software on a national security knowledge graph for defense acquisition, supply chain, production and sustainment.
Auterion
Arlington, VirginiaDevelops AuterionOS and Nemyx, software that turns low-cost drones and ground robots into autonomous, coordinated swarms; engineering in Zurich and Munich.
Rune Technologies
Arlington, VirginiaBuilds TyrOS, AI predictive logistics software that runs at the edge to plan sustainment and autonomous resupply in contested environments.
Scale AI
San Francisco, CaliforniaProvides AI training data, model evaluation and generative AI platforms for commercial customers and governments, including the US Department of Defense.
Applied Intuition
Mountain View, CaliforniaSupplies vehicle software, simulation and autonomy stacks for automotive, trucking and defense, including uncrewed ground, air and maritime systems.
TurbineOne
San Francisco, CaliforniaMakes the Frontline Perception System, edge machine learning software that lets soldiers build and run target recognition models on local sensor data.
Rebellion Defense
Washington, District of ColumbiaDevelops AI and software products for defense and national security missions, including cyber readiness and battlefield awareness tools.
Vannevar Labs
Palo Alto, CaliforniaBuilds AI software that collects and analyzes foreign-language open source and other data to give military and intelligence users battlefield and strategic insight.
Questions
Who are the biggest defense ai and autonomy companies in the US?
By disclosed funding among the companies we track: Anduril Industries, ASI (Air Space Intelligence), Onebrief and Applied Intuition, as of November 14, 2026.
How many defense ai and autonomy companies are in the US?
Our directory lists 20 privately held US autonomy & ai startups as of November 14, 2026. Large primes and public companies are not included.