Defend AI, the protection expertise firm constructing the world’s finest AI pilot for plane, introduced it has raised $200 million in Sequence F funding in an oversubscribed funding spherical. This funding, led by U.S. Progressive Expertise Fund (USIT) and co-led by Riot Ventures, with participation from Cathie Wooden’s ARK Make investments and returning traders Disruptive and Snowpoint, values Defend AI at $2.7 billion.
“We’re constructing the world’s finest AI pilot to make sure air superiority and deter battle as a result of we imagine the best victory requires no struggle. This funding accelerates the scaling of Defend AI’s merchandise, enabling the deployment of clever, reasonably priced mass—a very powerful non-nuclear deterrent for the subsequent 30 years,” stated Brandon Tseng, Defend AI’s President, co-founder, and former Navy SEAL.
Defend AI builds an AI pilot referred to as Hivemind, which allows groups of clever plane to function autonomously in high-threat environments on the sting, with out the necessity for distant operators, command inputs, or GPS. The expertise strategy is just like these within the self-driving automotive trade and its software program stack is plane agnostic, permitting Defend AI to supply autonomy to a wide range of kind elements throughout the aerospace trade. This announcement comes on the heels of the corporate’s latest launch of its V-BAT Groups product. This product allows a single human operator to command a minimal of 4 V-BATs, producing real-time AI-driven flight paths, and exhibiting dynamic read-and-react behaviors autonomously. Aside from deadly decision-making, V-BAT Groups can full missions from begin to end with out the necessity for an operator or pilot.
Concurrently, the corporate has been diligently engaged on integrating Hivemind into uncrewed fighter jets, a big effort supported each by means of authorities applications and firm R&D. In December 2022, Defend AI, together with its authorities companions, made aviation historical past by autonomously maneuvering a modified F-16 in real-world air-combat situations. The corporate continues to fly and take a look at its autonomy on fighter jets and has extra autonomous maneuver flight hours of fighter jets than any firm on the earth.
“The rising variety of navy conflicts we’ve got seen over the past 18 months sadly paints a sobering view of our future protection expertise wants and the vital function AI will play,” stated Thomas Tull, Chairman of USIT. “Defend AI continues to be a pioneer on this sector, driving a lot wanted innovation by growing state-of-the artwork AI pilots. We’re proud to proceed supporting their mission as they leverage these cutting-edge applied sciences to discourage battle earlier than it begins.”
The funds from the Sequence F spherical can be used to:
- Scale and deploy Defend AI’s V-BAT Groups product domestically and internationally.
- Speed up tech integration with third-party uncrewed platforms.
“As deep-tech traders, we’ve got seen a big swath of autonomy efforts in each realm and Defend AI has a transparent lead. Battlefields are more and more dominated by drone warfare and the enemy is doing all the things of their energy to make it a hostile surroundings, together with blocking communications and GPS. Trendy air forces are flying blind. Defend’s AI pilot doesn’t require GPS or communications as a result of it’s sensible and adaptable to the surroundings. Their AI is trainable and adaptable to many various missions and has flown groups of quadcopters, V-BATs, and trendy fighter jets. The closest tech comparable we’ve seen is what Tesla is doing with their self-driving stack. Their mixture of market-leading AI expertise and top-tier progress is why we’re excited to proceed to spend money on the Firm,” stated Stephen Marcus, Co-Founder and Normal Companion of Riot Ventures.
