What is Anduril?
A plain-English guide to the defense-technology company everyone is talking about.
The short version
Anduril Industries is an American defense company that builds autonomous systems: drones, uncrewed jets and submarines, sensor towers, counter-drone interceptors, missiles, and the software that connects them. It sells mainly to the U.S. military and to allied governments such as Australia, the United Kingdom and Taiwan.
What makes Anduril different is less any single product than its business model. Traditional defense contractors usually wait for the government to define a requirement and pay for development. Anduril spends its own (investors') money to build products first, then sells them, more like a technology company than a classic defense prime.
What does Anduril actually make?
Think of Anduril's products in four layers:
- Software: Lattice fuses data from sensors into one picture and lets a few people direct many machines. Lattice Mesh moves that data across unreliable networks.
- Sensors: Sentry surveillance towers (used on the U.S. border), radars (Spyglass, Spark) and infrared sensors (Wisp).
- Autonomous vehicles: small drones (Ghost, Bolt, Altius), the Fury jet for the Air Force's drone-wingman program, and underwater vehicles (Dive-LD, Dive-XL / Ghost Shark).
- Effectors (weapons and defenses): counter-drone interceptors (Anvil, Roadrunner), electronic warfare (Pulsar), cruise missiles (Barracuda) and solid rocket motors.
See every system, with status labels and sources, in the product tracker.
Who started it, and who runs it?
Anduril was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, who had earlier created the Oculus VR headset and sold the company to Facebook; Trae Stephens, a partner at Founders Fund who had worked at Palantir; Brian Schimpf and Matt Grimm, also Palantir alumni; and Joe Chen. Brian Schimpf is the CEO. Luckey is the most public face of the company, which leads many people to assume he runs it. In 2026 he was also named by the Pentagon to help lead a study called Project Meridian.
The name comes from Andúril, the sword reforged for Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.
Who are its customers?
Most revenue comes from the U.S. government: the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, Special Operations Command, and Customs and Border Protection. Major programs include the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the Army's Next Generation Command and Control, the Marine Corps' counter-drone program and CBP's border towers. Internationally, Australia (Ghost Shark), the UK, Taiwan, the Netherlands and NATO are public customers or partners. See the contracts database and in the field.
How big is it?
Anduril says its revenue roughly doubled to about $2.2 billion in 2025. That is fast growth but still small next to the largest defense contractors, which each report tens of billions of dollars a year. Investors valued Anduril at $61 billion in May 2026, and Reuters reported in July 2026 that it was in talks at around $100 billion. See funding and valuation.
Why is it controversial?
Anduril openly builds weapons, including systems with significant autonomy, and its founders argue that Silicon Valley should help the military. Supporters see it as a needed shake-up of a slow, expensive defense industry. Critics worry about autonomous weapons, surveillance at the border, the influence of venture capital and politically connected founders on defense policy, and whether promises match battlefield results. We lay out both sides on the debate page.
Where to go next
- Start here: a 20-minute beginner reading path
- Lattice explained
- Timeline from 2017 to today
- FAQ