Anduril eyes $60 billion valuation in new funding round

The U.S. defense-technology company Anduril, which was founded by Palmer Luckey, is currently in the middle of a multibillion-dollar funding round, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. This funding round is being led by the investors Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. For this new capital raise, Anduril aims at a $60 billion valuation. A separate report from Bloomberg indicated that the new funding round could bring as much as $8 billion of capital into the company.

This potential capital raise follows shortly after Anduril closed its previous funding round last summer. To compare the financial targets of the current round with the company’s previous late-stage funding round:

• Current Funding Round Targets: The company aims at a $60 billion valuation, and the round could bring in as much as $8 billion in new capital.
• Series G (Late-Stage Funding) Round: This previous round closed in June with $2.5 billion of capital raised against a $30 billion valuation. Investors Lux Capital and Founders Fund are expected to participate in the current funding round alongside the lead investors.

The funding news arrives during a period of broader defense-tech sector tension in the U.S., marked by disputes between the government and technology contractors. Specifically, the U.S. government is in the process of canceling all its contracts with the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. This action follows a contract dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon, which serves as the U.S. Department of Defense. Hegseth, who serves as the U.S. Secretary of Defense, has threatened to designate Anthropic as a supply-chain risk.

While Palmer Luckey has not explicitly endorsed the supply-chain risk designation for Anthropic, the Anduril founder has vocally supported the U.S. government’s position. Luckey expressed his perspective on the relationship between the state and private corporations in a post on the social media platform X, writing: “At the end of the day, you have to believe that our imperfect constitutional republic is still good enough to run a country without outsourcing the real levers of power to billionaires and corpos and their shadow advisors.”

Why it matters

Anduril’s valuation target highlights the continued investor appetite for defense-tech, even as the sector faces increasing scrutiny and contract volatility from the U.S. government.