Shield AI funding: Every round, investor, and valuation (2026)

Shield AI builds Hivemind, software that flies aircraft without a pilot, GPS, or a radio link. The San Diego company sells it in two ways: inside its own drones, led by the V-BAT surveillance aircraft, and as a license to other aircraft makers. Its next product is X-BAT, an AI-piloted fighter jet that takes off and lands vertically.

Shield AI has raised about $3.6 billion across nine rounds, from a 2016 seed to a 2026 Series G, plus extensions and debt. The Series G, announced in March 2026, valued the company at $12.7 billion.

Most of that money arrived in the last three years, as the Pentagon and its allies started buying autonomous aircraft in volume. Venture funds paid for the early years, then defense primes and private equity took over. Let's dive into Shield AI's funding history.

Shield AI's funding falls into three eras. Seed and venture funds backed a small drone for special forces, growth investors paid for acquisitions that turned it into an aircraft company, and strategic and private equity investors now fund a push into combat jets.

Brothers Ryan and Brandon Tseng founded Shield AI in 2015 with Andrew Reiter. Brandon, a former Navy SEAL, wanted a robot that could clear a building before soldiers walked in. Ryan had already sold a wireless-charging startup, WiPower, to Qualcomm.

The first product was Nova, a small quadcopter that mapped the inside of buildings on its own. Seed funds Founder Collective, Bloomberg Beta, and Homebrew backed it in 2016, and Andreessen Horowitz led the Series A a year later. Peter Levine, the a16z partner behind the deal, joined the board.

Jim Breyer, an early Facebook investor, came in at the start of 2019. The Series B followed that August, with SVB Capital and Riot Ventures as new backers. Shield AI did not disclose the amount, and funding databases put it at about $22 million.

The Series C, led by Point72 Ventures in February 2021, was the first round Shield AI announced with a dollar figure. It paid to put Hivemind on more aircraft and to build the next Nova.

Six months later, Disruptive, the Austin growth fund run by Alex Davis, led the Series D and pushed Shield AI past a $1 billion valuation. The round came as Shield AI bought two companies: Heron Systems, whose AI pilot had beaten a human F-16 pilot 5 to 0 in a DARPA simulated dogfight, and Martin UAV, the maker of the V-BAT. Those deals turned a software and quadcopter startup into a company that sells real aircraft.

The Series E in June 2022 mixed equity and debt. Snowpoint Ventures led it through Doug Philippone, who built Palantir's government software business into a defense contractor before starting his own fund. In December, the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, backed by Thomas Tull, added $60 million at the same price.

The Series F in October 2023 was led by the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund and co-led by Riot Ventures, with Cathie Wood's ARK Invest joining. Two months later, Shield AI expanded the round with more equity and $200 million of debt from Hercules Capital, a lender to venture-backed companies.

The March 2025 Series F-1 brought in the first corporate investors. L3Harris, one of the large US defense contractors, and South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace both bought in. The money was earmarked for Hivemind Enterprise, the version of the software that other aircraft makers license. A later extension, which Shield AI did not announce, reportedly lifted the valuation to $5.6 billion.

The Series G in March 2026 was the largest round in the company's history. Advent International led it and JPMorganChase co-led through its Security and Resiliency Initiative. Blackstone added a separate package of fixed-return preferred equity and committed a $250 million delayed-draw loan facility on top. Part of the money paid for Aechelon Technology, a maker of flight-simulation software.

Shield AI's valuation rose about tenfold between its 2021 unicorn round and the 2026 Series G. The steepest climb came after 2024, once Hivemind started winning Air Force programs.

The price barely moved between the Series E and the Series F, a step-up of about 17% in 16 months. Shield AI spent that stretch absorbing its acquisitions and scaling V-BAT production.

Since then the gaps have widened. The F-1 nearly doubled the Series F expansion price, and the Series G more than doubled the 2025 extension. Revenue grew more slowly than the valuation: about $267 million in 2024, according to estimates from research firms Sacra and Contrary, against a company forecast of more than $540 million for 2026.

In September 2026, The Information reported that Shield AI was in talks to raise at a valuation of at least $20 billion, about 60% above the March price. That would still leave it about a third of the $61 billion that Anduril's founder-led ownership commanded in its May 2026 round. Founders, early funds, and the new private equity backers now share the cap table, and the full breakdown of how Shield AI's ownership is split covers who holds what.

Shield AI's cap table moved from consumer-tech venture funds to defense specialists, and then to banks and private equity. Each group brought something beyond cash: board seats, a network in the Pentagon, or a path to the public markets.

Advent led the Series G, and its chairman, David Mussafer, joined Shield AI's board.

Advent is a buyout firm used to holding companies for years and taking them public. Its arrival, along with JPMorganChase, is the clearest sign that Shield AI is being prepared for an eventual listing, though the company has not said so.

JPMorganChase co-led the Series G through the strategic investment arm of its Security and Resiliency Initiative, a program launched in October 2025 that includes up to $10 billion of direct investments in companies tied to US security. Todd Combs, who left Berkshire Hathaway to run that investment group, became a board observer.

For Shield AI, the bank brings more than capital. JPMorganChase can lend, advise on acquisitions, and eventually underwrite an IPO.

Blackstone did not buy common stock. Its funds provided fixed-return preferred equity, which pays investors a set return and ranks ahead of ordinary shares, plus a delayed-draw loan facility Shield AI can tap as it grows.

That structure lets Shield AI raise cash without selling as much of the company at the Series G price. The trade-off is that Blackstone gets paid before common shareholders if the business disappoints.

Andreessen Horowitz led the Series A in 2017 and returned for the Series D, Series E, and Series F-1. Founder Collective, Bloomberg Beta, and Homebrew wrote the first checks in 2016, and Homebrew stayed in through the Series E.

Breyer Capital, Point72 Ventures, and Disruptive financed the jump from quadcopters to aircraft. Disruptive led the Series D and came back for the Series E, Series F, and Series G.

Snowpoint Ventures, the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, and Riot Ventures are funds built around national security. Snowpoint's Philippone sits on Shield AI's board, and USIT led or co-led two rounds in 2022 and 2023.

These investors know how Pentagon budgets and contracts work. That matters for a company whose biggest customers are governments that buy on multiyear cycles.

L3Harris and Hanwha Aerospace joined in the F-1. Both build weapons and aircraft, and both are potential Hivemind customers: L3Harris has since paired Shield AI's Tracker counter-drone system with its own VAMPIRE launcher. Washington Harbour Partners and ARK Invest are other notable names, and Hercules Capital is the main lender.

Shield AI spends its funding on three things: acquisitions, aircraft development, and factories. Software is the long-term business, but hardware still pays most of the bills.

Each acquisition filled a gap in the product line. Heron Systems brought the AI pilot technology behind Hivemind, and Martin UAV brought the V-BAT, which now flies for the US Coast Guard, Japan, the Netherlands, and Ukraine.

In 2024, Shield AI bought Sentient Vision Systems, an Australian maker of camera software that spots small objects at sea, and set up Shield AI Australia around it. Aechelon, bought with the Series G, makes simulation software used by the Pentagon. Shield AI plans to use it to train and test Hivemind before it flies.

X-BAT is the most expensive project on the list. Shield AI unveiled the jet in October 2025 and is building prototypes at a facility in Frisco, Texas.

In September 2026, Shield AI named its production and test sites: a factory in Des Moines, Washington, south of Seattle, and a flight test center in Newton, Kansas. X-BAT is planned to enter production in 2029, so the program will consume cash for years before it earns any.

Shield AI is building a V-BAT production hub in Hyderabad, India, to supply the Indian armed forces and export markets. It opened offices in Ukraine, Oslo, and Taiwan to work with allied militaries.

Shield AI makes money by selling V-BAT aircraft, flying them as a service, and licensing Hivemind. Sacra estimates that software made up about 30% of revenue in the 12 months to March 2025, and the company wants that share to reach half.

That is why investors pay a software-style price for a business that still earns most of its revenue from aircraft. The Series G is a bet that Hivemind licenses, such as the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft contract, will grow faster than drone sales.

Shield AI's growth now rests on the US Air Force and on allied militaries in Europe and Asia. In June 2026, the Air Force awarded it a production contract to supply Hivemind mission autonomy for its Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the uncrewed jets that will fly alongside fighters, and kept it in a competition with Anduril and Collins Aerospace for the software role. In May, the Pentagon picked Hivemind for LUCAS, a low-cost attack drone, and in September Poland's state defense group PGZ signed a letter of intent for X-BAT.

The product plan is to make Hivemind the autonomy layer on other companies' aircraft while X-BAT moves toward production. CEO Gary Steele, who took Proofpoint public before Proofpoint's private equity ownership under Thoma Bravo, has set a target of $1 billion in revenue by the fiscal year ending March 2028. A round at $20 billion or more would fund that plan, and Shield AI has not filed for an IPO.

The main risks are concentration and competition. Almost all revenue comes from governments, so a budget shift or a lost program would hit hard. Anduril, with a hardware-heavy business model and about five times Shield AI's valuation, competes for the same contracts, and X-BAT must prove it can fly and sell before the money from the latest round runs out. The flow of capital into defense and AI startups, tracked in startup funding statistics, has so far made new money easy to find.

Shield AI has raised about $3.6 billion since 2016. That includes about $2.8 billion of equity, $500 million of Blackstone preferred equity, and about $350 million of debt. The largest round was the $1.5 billion Series G in March 2026.

Shield AI's lead investors include Advent International, JPMorganChase, Andreessen Horowitz, the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, Snowpoint Ventures, Disruptive, Point72 Ventures, and Riot Ventures. Strategic investors include L3Harris and Hanwha Aerospace, and Blackstone provided preferred equity and a loan facility.

Shield AI was valued at $12.7 billion after its Series G in March 2026. In September 2026, The Information reported that it was in talks to raise at a valuation of at least $20 billion. That round had not been announced as of October 1, 2026.

No. Shield AI is private and has not filed for an IPO. Its shares do not trade on any stock exchange.

Shield AI is owned by its founders, employees, and investors. Co-founders Ryan Tseng and Brandon Tseng still work at the company, while Gary Steele has been CEO since May 2025. The largest outside holders are likely Advent International, Andreessen Horowitz, and the funds that led its rounds, though exact stakes are not public.