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Shield AI announced that it has raised additional equity capital from the US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) to fund its AI pilots for military aircraft.
This additional raise was done at the company’s Series E price and closes out the round at $225 million, with $150 million in equity and $75 million in debt.
The initial part of Series E was closed in June 2022, which made the company the fourth venture-backed, multi-billion-dollar defense-technology startup in 20 years.
Shield AI’s Hivemind software is an AI pilot for military and commercial aircraft that enables intelligent teams of aircraft to perform missions ranging from room clearance to penetrating air defense systems and dogfighting F-16s.
Hivemind employs state-of-the-art algorithms for planning, mapping, and state-estimation to enable aircraft to execute dynamic flight maneuvers and uses reinforcement learning for discovery, learning, and execution of winning tactics and strategies.
On aircraft, Hivemind enables full autonomy and is designed to run fully on the edge, disconnected from the cloud, in high threat, GPS and communication-degraded environments.
“We fundamentally believe that the greatest victory requires no war, which is why deterrence technology like AI pilots for defense are so crucial,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s cofounder, president, and former Navy SEAL. “We are racing to put up swarms of highly intelligent aircraft to deter the next conflict and this new capital accelerates our efforts.”
“Automated defense capabilities will play an increasingly essential role in our defense programs and are critical to our ability to remain competitive,” said Thomas Tull, Chairman of USIT. “Shield AI is a leader in this space, developing some of the most advanced and cutting-edge technology for AI piloting. We are proud to be able to support Shield AI and the work they are doing in defense.”
