Anduril Industries, Inc.
Company History
Anduril History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2017 in Costa Mesa, California
When was Anduril founded?
Anduril was founded in 2017 in Costa Mesa, California by Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm and Joe Chen, making it 9 years old.
- Founded
- 2017
- Founding place
- Costa Mesa, California
- Founders
- Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm and Joe Chen
- Headquarters today
- Costa Mesa, California, United States
- Milestones documented
- 18 (2017–2026)
- Current CEO
- Brian Schimpf
- Acquisitions
- 6
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Anduril founded in Southern California |
| 2018 | First sentry towers tested for Customs and Border Protection |
| 2020 | Sentry towers become a CBP program of record |
| 2020 | Series C values Anduril at $1.9 billion |
| 2021 | Area-I acquisition adds ALTIUS air-launched effects |
| 2022 | US Special Operations Command counter-drone contract |
| 2022 | Dive Technologies acquisition opens the undersea line |
| 2023 | Adranos and Blue Force Technologies acquired |
| 2023 | Roadrunner interceptor unveiled |
| 2024 | US Air Force selects Anduril for CCA Increment 1 |
| 2024 | Series F raises $1.5 billion at a $14 billion valuation |
| 2025 | Arsenal-1 announced in Pickaway County, Ohio |
| 2025 | Series G raises $2.5 billion at a $30.5 billion valuation |
| 2025 | Ghost Shark becomes a program of record for Australia |
| 2025 | YFQ-44A Fury first flight |
| 2026 | Arsenal-1 starts production and ExoAnalytic is acquired |
| 2026 | Series H raises $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation |
| 2026 | CCA production contract and first Ohio-built Fury |
- Where was Anduril founded?
- Anduril was founded in Costa Mesa, California in 2017.
- Who founded Anduril?
- Anduril was founded by Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm and Joe Chen.
- When did Anduril start?
- Anduril was founded in 2017.
- How old is Anduril?
- Anduril is 9 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Palmer Luckey sold his virtual reality company Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014 and left the company in March 2017. Weeks later he started Anduril with Trae Stephens, a partner at Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and an early Palantir employee, alongside Palantir engineering director Brian Schimpf, Palantir and Mithril Capital veteran Matt Grimm, and early Oculus hardware lead Joe Chen. Their argument was that leading technology firms were refusing military work while the Pentagon bought from a shrinking group of slow contractors. They named the company Anduril, after the reforged sword in The Lord of the Rings, and set out to build software-defined weapons with their own capital and sell them finished.
Founders
Palmer Luckey
Palmer Luckey is a co-founder of Anduril Industries and its best known hardware voice. He left Facebook in March 2017 and started Anduril weeks later, arguing that the Pentagon was buying from too few, too slow suppliers while leading technology firms refused military work. At Anduril he works on hardware architecture and has fronted launches including the Roadrunner interceptor in December 2023 and the EagleEye mixed-reality helmet in October 2025, a product that returned him to the headset engineering he started with. Palmer Luckey was born in 1992.
Brian Schimpf
Brian Schimpf is a co-founder and the chief executive of Anduril Industries. Before starting the company in 2017 with Palmer Luckey and Trae Stephens, he was a director of engineering at Palantir Technologies, leading deployments of data integration software to war zones. As chief executive he has kept development privately funded and priced products as finished goods, the model behind Anduril's US Air Force collaborative combat aircraft work, its counter-drone contract with US Special Operations Command and the Ghost Shark program in Australia. He also approved the move into hyperscale manufacturing at Arsenal-1 in Ohio. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Trae Stephens
Trae Stephens is a co-founder and executive chairman of Anduril Industries and a partner at Founders Fund. He and Palmer Luckey started the company in 2017 on the view that the defense industrial base rewarded slow cost-plus programs over fast iteration. Stephens handles strategy, Washington relationships and capital formation: Founders Fund led Anduril's early rounds and later the $2.5 billion round of June 2025 that valued the company at $30.5 billion. He announced that round publicly on behalf of the company. Trae Stephens was born in 1983. Education: Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Matt Grimm
Matt Grimm is a co-founder and the chief operating officer of Anduril Industries, responsible for operations, supply chain and facilities. He joined Palmer Luckey, Trae Stephens and Brian Schimpf in 2017 and has spent the years since turning engineering output into delivered hardware: sentry towers for Customs and Border Protection, interceptors and drones for US and allied forces, and the manufacturing build-out that runs from Costa Mesa to Arsenal-1 in Ohio and the Ghost Shark factory in Sydney. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Joe Chen
Joe Chen is a co-founder of Anduril Industries and one of two founders who came from Oculus VR rather than Palantir. His work sits on the hardware side of the company, the sensors, optics and airframes that feed the Lattice software, and reflects the early Oculus practice of building and testing quickly with commercial parts. He co-founded the company in 2017 with Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens and Matt Grimm. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Anduril founded in Southern California
Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm and Joe Chen started Anduril to build defense systems with private capital and sell them finished.
Source: techcrunch.comFirst sentry towers tested for Customs and Border Protection
CBP tested the first four Anduril sentry towers in the San Diego area in early 2018, the first field use of the Lattice software, and bought 56 more.
Source: nextgov.comSentry towers become a CBP program of record
Customs and Border Protection made Anduril's autonomous surveillance towers a program of record in July 2020, planning to deploy up to 200 of them.
Source: nextgov.comSeries C values Anduril at $1.9 billion
Anduril raised $200 million led by Andreessen Horowitz in July 2020, close to doubling its valuation to about $1.9 billion.
Source: fortune.comArea-I acquisition adds ALTIUS air-launched effects
Anduril acquired Georgia-based Area-I on 1 April 2021, adding the tube-launched ALTIUS family that it later supplied to the US Army and, through Anduril UK, to Ukraine.
Source: defensenews.comUS Special Operations Command counter-drone contract
SOCOM named Anduril its counter-unmanned systems integration partner in January 2022 under an indefinite-delivery contract with a ceiling of $967.6 million over ten years.
Source: defensenews.comDive Technologies acquisition opens the undersea line
Anduril bought Boston-based Dive Technologies in February 2022, gaining the Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicle that became the basis for Ghost Shark.
Source: washingtontechnology.comAdranos and Blue Force Technologies acquired
Anduril bought solid rocket motor maker Adranos in June 2023 and, on 7 September 2023, Blue Force Technologies, owner of the Fury uncrewed jet design.
Source: aviationweek.comRoadrunner interceptor unveiled
Anduril revealed Roadrunner and the Roadrunner-M interceptor on 1 December 2023, a twin-turbojet vehicle that takes off vertically and can be recovered if it is not expended.
Source: defensenews.comUS Air Force selects Anduril for CCA Increment 1
The Air Force chose Anduril and General Atomics in April 2024 to build and test production-representative collaborative combat aircraft, ending the bids of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman.
Source: defensenews.comSeries F raises $1.5 billion at a $14 billion valuation
Anduril closed a $1.5 billion round in August 2024, earmarking the money for hyperscale manufacturing.
Source: cnbc.comArsenal-1 announced in Pickaway County, Ohio
Anduril said on 16 January 2025 that it would build a 5 million square foot plant on a 500-acre site near Rickenbacker International Airport, an investment of about $1 billion with more than 4,000 jobs planned by 2035.
Source: defensenews.comSeries G raises $2.5 billion at a $30.5 billion valuation
Founders Fund led the June 2025 round, more than doubling Anduril's valuation in ten months.
Source: cnbc.comGhost Shark becomes a program of record for Australia
The Royal Australian Navy awarded Anduril Australia an A$1.7 billion contract, about US$1.12 billion, for a Ghost Shark fleet over five years after three prototypes were delivered under an ~$90.3 million (A$140 million) co-development deal.
Source: defensenews.comYFQ-44A Fury first flight
Anduril's collaborative combat aircraft flew for the first time on 31 October 2025 from Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville.
Source: theaviationist.comArsenal-1 starts production and ExoAnalytic is acquired
Anduril began building the YFQ-44A at Arsenal-1 on 23 March 2026, twelve days after agreeing to buy ExoAnalytic Solutions, which operates about 400 telescopes for space tracking.
Source: airandspaceforces.comSeries H raises $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation
Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz led the round announced on 13 May 2026; Anduril said revenue had more than doubled to $2.2 billion in 2025.
Source: cnbc.comCCA production contract and first Ohio-built Fury
The Air Force awarded Anduril and General Atomics Increment 1 production contracts in June 2026; the first Ohio-built Fury rolled off the Arsenal-1 line on 27 July 2026.
Source: defensescoop.comMajor Acquisitions
Area-I
2021Acquired the Georgia developer of tube-launched air-launched effects to add the ALTIUS family to Anduril's air vehicle line.
Dive Technologies
2022Acquired the Boston builder of large autonomous underwater vehicles, including the modular Dive-LD, to enter undersea autonomy.
Adranos
2023Acquired the solid rocket motor maker and its ALITEC aluminum-lithium propellant to secure motor supply for Anduril munitions.
Blue Force Technologies
2023Acquired the North Carolina firm behind the Fury uncrewed jet, together with its composite aerostructures team, on 7 September 2023.
Numerica Corporation radar and command-and-control businesses
2025Acquired Numerica's radar and command-and-control units on 9 January 2025 for their tracking and signal-processing software.
ExoAnalytic Solutions
2026Acquired the Orange County space-tracking firm, which runs a network of about 400 telescopes, to build out space domain awareness and missile defense work.
Keep researching Anduril
Anduril Company History FAQ
What did Anduril do in its first three years, from 2017 to 2020?
Anduril was founded in 2017, built the Lattice software and its first sentry towers, had four towers tested by Customs and Border Protection in the San Diego area in early 2018, launched the Ghost drone, and in July 2020 raised $200 million at a $1.9 billion valuation as CBP made the towers a program of record.
When did Anduril win its counter-drone contract with US Special Operations Command?
In January 2022 SOCOM named Anduril its counter-unmanned systems integration partner under an indefinite-delivery contract with a ceiling of $967.6 million over ten years, the largest Department of Defense award the company had won to that point.
How did the Ghost Shark program with the Royal Australian Navy develop?
Anduril signed an ~$90.3 million (A$140 million) co-development contract with the Royal Australian Navy and the Defence Science and Technology Group in May 2022, handed over the first prototype in April 2024 and delivered three ahead of schedule, then won an ~$1.1 billion (A$1.7 billion) production contract in 2025 and opened a Sydney factory that October.
When did Anduril unveil the Roadrunner interceptor?
Anduril revealed Roadrunner and the Roadrunner-M interceptor on 1 December 2023 after about two years of work in private. The twin-turbojet vehicle takes off vertically and can return and land if it is not expended.
What happened with the US Air Force collaborative combat aircraft program in April 2024?
The Air Force selected Anduril and General Atomics to build and test production-representative Increment 1 aircraft, ending the bids of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman. Anduril's YFQ-44A flew on 31 October 2025 and won a production contract in June 2026.
Where is Anduril's headquarters and where does it build hardware?
Anduril leases a campus of about 634,000 square feet in Costa Mesa, California, on the site of a former Los Angeles Times printing plant. Production runs at Arsenal-1 in Pickaway County, Ohio, at the Ghost Shark factory in Sydney and at the former Adranos rocket motor site in Mississippi, with a Long Beach campus due in 2027.
How much has Anduril raised and at what valuations?
Anduril has raised more than $11 billion, including $200 million at $1.9 billion in July 2020, $1.5 billion at $14 billion in August 2024, $2.5 billion at $30.5 billion in June 2025 and $5 billion at $61 billion in May 2026.
What are Anduril's current priorities?
Delivering Increment 1 Fury aircraft from Arsenal-1, building the Ghost Shark fleet in Sydney over five years, prototyping the Army's Soldier Borne Mission Command helmet, scaling solid rocket motor output and developing space-based interceptors under the April 2026 Golden Dome agreements.
When was Anduril founded?
Anduril was founded in 2017 in Southern California to bring Silicon Valley software engineering practices directly into the sluggish U.S. defense sector.
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