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A wave of defense tech startups in Silicon Valley is drawing billions in funding and reshaping America’s nationwide safety.
Anduril Industries, just lately valued at $30.5 billion following its newest funding spherical, is among the many so-called “neoprimes” — firms difficult the dominance of legacy contractors, dubbed “primes,” such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, and RTX (previously Raytheon).
“There’s more money than ever going to what we call the ‘neoprimes'” Jameson Darby, co-founder and director of autonomy at funding syndicate MilVet Angels, or MVA, instructed CNBC. “It’s still a fraction of the overall budget, but the trend is all positive.”
Other examples of defense tech startups difficult the incumbents embody SpaceX and Palantir Technologies, stated Darby, who can also be a founding member of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Unlike the primes, these startups are quicker, leaner and software-first — with lots of them constructing issues that may assist shut “critical technology gaps that are really important to national security,” stated Ernestine Fu Mak, co-founder of MVA and founding father of Brave Capital, a enterprise capital agency.
Venture funding for U.S.-based defense tech startups totaled about $38 billion by way of the primary half of 2025, and will exceed its 2021 peak if the tempo stays fixed for the remainder of the 12 months, in line with JPMorgan.
‘The battlefield is altering’
As the worldwide war panorama modified over the previous a long time, the U.S. Department of Defense has recognized several technologies that are essential to nationwide safety, together with hypersonics, power resilience, house expertise, built-in sensing and cyber.
“In a post-9/11 world, the entire Department of Defense effectively focused on … the global war on terrorism. It was our military versus insurgents, guerrillas, asymmetric warfare, relatively low-tech fighters in most cases,” stated Darby.
But war right now is extra centered on “great power competition,” stated Mak.
The battlefield is altering and new applied sciences are wanted … warfare now not being restricted to land, sea, air. There’s additionally cyber and house domains which have develop into contested.
Ernestine Fu Mak
Co-founder, MilVet Angels
“The focus is more on deterring and competing with [adversaries] in these very high-tech, multi-domain conflicts,” Mak added. “The battlefield is changing and new technologies are needed… warfare no longer being limited to land, sea, air. There’s also cyber and space domains that have become contested.”
Today, a few of these Silicon Valley “neoprimes” are growing not simply weapons, but in addition dual-use applied sciences that may be utilized each commercially and by militaries.
“So things like artificial intelligence and autonomy have broad, sweeping commercial applications, but they’re also clearly a force multiplier in a military context,” stated Darby. “[The] Department of War is rapidly assessing and adopting these dual-use technologies … they’re sending signals to the investment world, to the defense industrial base, that the U.S. government needs these things.”
That path from the federal government has, in flip, supplied a transparent and strategic roadmap for each buyers and entrepreneurs, stated Mak.
The ‘new guard’
On Sept. 17, MVA got here out of stealth mode after quietly backing some main defense tech startups since 2021.
Today, Mak says the syndicate’s roughly 250 members embody tech founders, Wall Street financiers, firm executives, intelligence officers, former army leaders and Navy SEALs. Together, they’ve invested in companies like Anduril Industries, Shield AI, Hermeus, Ursa Major and Aetherflux.
“Overall, we believe that ‘neoprimes’ cannot exist in the abstract. They require people — individuals who bring technical expertise, who carry a deep sense of mission, and who contribute complementary voices and talents. Together, this coalition forms what we are convening and calling the ‘new guard,'” stated Mak.
She added that fashionable nationwide safety requires each the “warrior’s insight on the battlefield” and the “builder’s drive for innovation”.
“Working together with engaged, informed patriots whose participation strengthens our defense ecosystem and reinforces the very fabric of national security,” Mak stated.
Mak and Darby each agree that as new applied sciences develop and make their method onto battlefields globally, it is altering the way in which militaries battle, which may additionally pose new threats.
“You’re seeing these technologists, these builders … building defense tech, and the reason why they’re doing so, is not to initiate conflict, but rather to create a credible deterrent that discourages aggression,” stated Mak.
“No one in defense tech is looking to wage war, rather, it’s looking to deter it and wanting adversaries to think twice before threatening peace and stability,” Mak added.