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A wave of defense tech startups in Silicon Valley is drawing billions in funding and reshaping America’s national security.
Anduril Industries, recently valued at $30.5 billion following its latest funding round, is among the many so-called “neoprimes” — firms difficult the dominance of legacy contractors, dubbed “primes,” comparable to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, and RTX (formerly Raytheon).
“There’s extra money than ever going to what we call the ‘neoprimes'” Jameson Darby, co-founder and director of autonomy at investment syndicate MilVet Angels, or MVA, told CNBC. “It’s still a fraction of the general budget, however the trend is all positive.”
Other examples of defense tech startups difficult the incumbents include SpaceX and Palantir Technologies, said Darby, who can also be a founding member of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Unlike the primes, these startups are faster, leaner and software-first — with lots of them constructing things that may also help close “critical technology gaps which are really vital to national security,” said Ernestine Fu Mak, co-founder of MVA and founding father of Brave Capital, a enterprise capital firm.
Enterprise funding for U.S.-based defense tech startups totaled about $38 billion through the primary half of 2025, and will exceed its 2021 peak if the pace stays constant for the remaining of the yr, in accordance with JPMorgan.
‘The battlefield is changing’
As the worldwide war landscape modified over the past many years, the U.S. Department of Defense has identified several technologies which are critical to national security, including hypersonics, energy resilience, space technology, integrated sensing and cyber.
“In a post-9/11 world, your entire Department of Defense effectively focused on … the worldwide war on terrorism. It was our military versus insurgents, guerrillas, asymmetric warfare, relatively low-tech fighters usually,” said Darby.
But war today is more focused on “great power competition,” said Mak.
The battlefield is changing and latest technologies are needed … warfare now not being limited to land, sea, air. There’s also cyber and space domains which have turn into contested.
Ernestine Fu Mak
Co-founder, MilVet Angels
“The main target is more on deterring and competing with [adversaries] in these very high-tech, multi-domain conflicts,” Mak added. “The battlefield is changing and latest technologies are needed… warfare now not being limited to land, sea, air. There’s also cyber and space domains which have turn into contested.”
Today, a few of these Silicon Valley “neoprimes” are developing not only weapons, but in addition dual-use technologies that could be applied each commercially and by militaries.
“So things like artificial intelligence and autonomy have broad, sweeping business applications, but they’re also clearly a force multiplier in a military context,” said Darby. “[The] Department of War is rapidly assessing and adopting these dual-use technologies … they’re sending signals to the investment world, to the defense industrial base, that the U.S. government needs these items.”
That direction from the federal government has, in turn, provided a transparent and strategic roadmap for each investors and entrepreneurs, said Mak.
The ‘latest guard’
On Sept. 17, MVA got here out of stealth mode after quietly backing some leading defense tech startups since 2021.
Today, Mak says the syndicate’s roughly 250 members include tech founders, Wall Street financiers, company executives, intelligence officials, former military leaders and Navy SEALs. Together, they’ve invested in firms like Anduril Industries, Shield AI, Hermeus, Ursa Major and Aetherflux.
“Overall, we consider that ‘neoprimes’ cannot exist within the abstract. They require people — individuals who bring technical expertise, who carry a deep sense of mission, and who contribute complementary voices and skills. Together, this coalition forms what we’re convening and calling the ‘latest guard,'” said Mak.
She added that modern national security requires each the “warrior’s insight on the battlefield” and the “builder’s drive for innovation”.
“Working along with engaged, informed patriots whose participation strengthens our defense ecosystem and reinforces the very fabric of national security,” Mak said.
Mak and Darby each agree that as latest technologies develop and make their way onto battlefields globally, it’s changing the best way militaries fight, which also can pose latest threats.
“You are seeing these technologists, these builders … constructing defense tech, and the rationale why they’re doing so, isn’t to initiate conflict, but reasonably to create a reputable deterrent that daunts aggression,” said Mak.
“Nobody in defense tech is trying to wage war, reasonably, it’s trying to deter it and wanting adversaries to think twice before threatening peace and stability,” Mak added.
