Anduril lands $5B as defense giant builds autonomous warship operation in Seattle

Anduril Industries announced a massive $5 billion funding round Wednesday as the fast-growing defense tech startup ramps up investments in manufacturing and autonomous military systems — including a quietly expanding maritime operation in Seattle. 

As GeekWire reported last month, Anduril established operations at the historic Foss Maritime shipyard along the southern bank of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, where the company is developing autonomous naval vessels and other maritime technologies.

The Series H funding round — including investments from Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz — values Anduril at $61 billion. 

The Costa Mesa, Calif.-based company said the financing will fuel aggressive investments in manufacturing capacity, R&D and infrastructure needed to produce advanced defense systems. 

“When Anduril launched in 2017, defense attracted little venture investment,” CEO Brian Schimpf said in a letter, adding that investors now increasingly recognize “the scale of the technological and industrial challenges facing the United States and its allies.”

The Seattle facility underscores how the Pacific Northwest is increasingly emerging as a strategic hub for next-generation defense technologies  — blending advanced manufacturing with AI, autonomy and defense software.

Just this week, GeekWire reported on Armada’s growing engineering hub in Bellevue, where the heavily funded startup is working on portable data centers for military operations and other use cases. Other Seattle-area companies such as Overland AI — autonomous military vehicles — and Echodyne — advanced radar systems — are benefitting from what CNBC dubbed a “defense tech funding boom.” 

Earlier this year, autonomous vessel startup Saronic Technologies announced a $1.75 billion funding round and plans to develop a next-generation shipyard focused on autonomous naval ships — raising broader questions about where America’s future defense shipbuilding hubs will emerge.

Anduril’s expansion also lands amid renewed national focus on revitalizing America’s industrial and naval capacity. In a letter released alongside the funding announcement, the company argued that future conflicts will depend heavily on resilient production systems, rapid adaptation, and scalable autonomous technologies. 

Anduril has not publicly detailed the scale of its Seattle maritime operations, and the company did not respond to requests for comment when GeekWire reported on the shipyard last month. 

However, the company said in a November 2025 press release that its Seattle facility will serve as the U.S. hub for vessel assembly, integration and testing of Autonomous Surface Vessels as part of the U.S. Navy’s Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) program. 

Anduril also is rapidly expanding its operations in California. And it is building a massive facility just south of Columbus, Ohio, that it dubs Arsenal-1, described by the company as “the future of American defense manufacturing.”

Founded in 2017 by Oculus VR creator Palmer Luckey, Anduril Industries has rapidly grown into one of the most valuable private defense companies in the world, building autonomous drones, surveillance systems, AI-powered software platforms and military robotics.