Unclassified // open-source data on US defense tech // 14 NOV 2026
Autonomy & AI
20 companies

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

DateCompanyRoundAmountHQSector
Nov 2026Primordial Labs Series A$18MNew Haven, CTAutonomy & AI
Nov 2026Lumbra Series A$25MWashington, DCAutonomy & AI
Oct 2026Watchtower Labs Seed$35MSeattle, WAAutonomy & AI
Oct 2026ASI (Air Space Intelligence) Series C$325MBoston, MAAutonomy & AI
Sep 2026Virtualitics Series C$10MPasadena, CAAutonomy & AI
Aug 2026Smack Technologies Series B$61MAustin, TXAutonomy & AI
May 2026Picogrid Series A$45MEl Segundo, CAAutonomy & AI
May 2026Anduril Industries Series H$5BCosta Mesa, CAAutonomy & AI
Apr 2026Scout AI Series A$100MSunnyvale, CAAutonomy & AI
Feb 2026NODA AI Series A$25MAustin, TXAutonomy & AI
Feb 2026Breaker Seed$6MAustin, TXAutonomy & AI
Jan 2026Onebrief Series D$200MHonolulu, HIAutonomy & AI
Oct 2025Govini Growth$150MArlington, VAAutonomy & AI
Sep 2025Auterion Series B$130MArlington, VAAutonomy & AI
Jul 2025Rune Technologies Series A$24MArlington, VAAutonomy & AI
Jun 2025Scale AI Strategic$14BSan Francisco, CAAutonomy & AI
Jun 2025Applied Intuition Series F$600MMountain View, CAAutonomy & AI
May 2025TurbineOne Series B$36MSan Francisco, CAAutonomy & AI
Sep 2021Rebellion Defense Series B$150MWashington, DCAutonomy & AI

All companies

Full directory

Primordial Labs

New Haven, Connecticut

Makes Anura, natural-language command and control software that lets crews direct drones, sensors, radios and vehicles by voice.

Autonomy & AISeries A / Nov 2026

Lumbra

Washington, District of Columbia

Builds LumbraOS, a model-neutral operating system that orchestrates auditable AI agents for analysts on classified Pentagon and intelligence networks.

Autonomy & AISeries A / Nov 2026

Watchtower Labs

Seattle, Washington

Builds AI decision support software for military commanders, starting with logistics planning for fuel, ammunition and transport routes.

Autonomy & AISeed / Oct 2026

ASI (Air Space Intelligence)

Boston, Massachusetts

Builds AI planning and monitoring software for air traffic, airline and military operations, including command and control for the Army and Air Force.

Autonomy & AISeries C / Oct 2026

Virtualitics

Pasadena, California

Builds AI readiness and decision software for military maintenance, materiel, personnel and supply chain, grown out of Caltech and NASA JPL research.

Autonomy & AISeries C / Sep 2026

Smack Technologies

Austin, Texas

Trains military-specific AI models, Omega for command-level reasoning and Alpha for the tactical edge, to support operational decisions.

Autonomy & AISeries B / Aug 2026

Picogrid

El Segundo, California

Builds Legion, an open integration and data fusion layer that connects sensors, effectors and autonomous systems from different vendors.

Autonomy & AISeries A / May 2026

Anduril Industries

Costa Mesa, California

Builds the Lattice software platform and autonomous systems, from air defense and counter-drone interceptors to uncrewed aircraft and undersea vehicles, plus high-rate manufacturing.

Autonomy & AISeries H / May 2026

Scout AI

Sunnyvale, California

Trains Fury, a defense vision-language-action foundation model that lets operators command fleets of drones and ground robots in natural language.

Autonomy & AISeries A / Apr 2026

NODA AI

Austin, Texas

Builds URZA, a vendor-agnostic orchestration platform that coordinates mixed fleets of autonomous systems across domains for the military and intelligence community.

Autonomy & AISeries A / Feb 2026

Breaker

Austin, Texas

Develops onboard AI agents that let operators command teams of drones and robots by voice over existing radios, even in disconnected environments.

Autonomy & AISeed / Feb 2026

Onebrief

Honolulu, Hawaii

Builds collaborative AI planning software, an operating system for military command staffs to build and update operational plans.

Autonomy & AISeries D / Jan 2026

Govini

Arlington, Virginia

Builds Ark, AI decision software on a national security knowledge graph for defense acquisition, supply chain, production and sustainment.

Autonomy & AIGrowth / Oct 2025

Auterion

Arlington, Virginia

Develops AuterionOS and Nemyx, software that turns low-cost drones and ground robots into autonomous, coordinated swarms; engineering in Zurich and Munich.

Autonomy & AISeries B / Sep 2025

Rune Technologies

Arlington, Virginia

Builds TyrOS, AI predictive logistics software that runs at the edge to plan sustainment and autonomous resupply in contested environments.

Autonomy & AISeries A / Jul 2025

Scale AI

San Francisco, California

Provides AI training data, model evaluation and generative AI platforms for commercial customers and governments, including the US Department of Defense.

Autonomy & AIStrategic / Jun 2025

Applied Intuition

Mountain View, California

Supplies vehicle software, simulation and autonomy stacks for automotive, trucking and defense, including uncrewed ground, air and maritime systems.

Autonomy & AISeries F / Jun 2025

TurbineOne

San Francisco, California

Makes the Frontline Perception System, edge machine learning software that lets soldiers build and run target recognition models on local sensor data.

Autonomy & AISeries B / May 2025

Rebellion Defense

Washington, District of Columbia

Develops AI and software products for defense and national security missions, including cyber readiness and battlefield awareness tools.

Autonomy & AISeries B / Sep 2021

Vannevar Labs

Palo Alto, California

Builds AI software that collects and analyzes foreign-language open source and other data to give military and intelligence users battlefield and strategic insight.

Autonomy & AIRound n/d

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.