Shield AI

Shield AI was founded in 2015 in San Diego by former Navy SEAL Brandon Tseng, his brother Ryan Tseng and Andrew Reiter to build autonomous systems and AI pilots for defense customers. Its core product is Hivemind, a platform-agnostic autonomy software stack that assumes the role of a human pilot or operator, letting an aircraft sense, decide and act rather than follow a pre-programmed route. Hivemind is compliant with the U.S. Air Force's Autonomy Government Reference Architecture and has piloted 26 vehicle classes, including F-16s, MQ-20 Avengers, MQM-178s, helicopters, uncrewed aircraft and ground vehicles, in GPS- and communications-denied conditions.

The company earns revenue on two tracks. The first is aircraft: V-BAT, a single-engine ducted-fan vertical takeoff and landing UAS with more than 12 hours of endurance and a heavy-fuel engine, which launches and recovers from ship decks, rooftops and austere sites. The U.S. Coast Guard awarded Shield AI a $198.1 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for contractor-owned, contractor-operated ISR services in July 2024, and V-BAT also flies with the U.S. Marine Corps and allied governments including Poland, Greece and Ukraine. The second track is software: Hivemind Enterprise, a developer platform for building, testing and deploying autonomy, which chief executive Gary Steele has said he wants to account for half of revenue by 2028.

Shield AI generated roughly $300 million of revenue in 2025 and projected more than $540 million for 2026, growth of over 80% year over year, with Steele targeting $1 billion by 2028. In February 2026 the U.S. Air Force selected the company as a mission autonomy provider for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program after a competitive evaluation, and in June 2026 it received a CCA production contract; Hivemind flies aboard Anduril's YFQ-44A. The company had about 1,500 employees as of March 2026, up from the roughly 900 it employed when Ryan Tseng handed over the chief executive role in 2025.

Its largest bet is X-BAT, an AI-piloted vertical takeoff and landing fighter unveiled in October 2025, with a range of more than 2,000 nautical miles, a ceiling above 50,000 feet, internal weapons bays and external hardpoints, and a 39-foot wingspan. GE Aerospace agreed in November 2025 to supply the F110-GE-129 with an Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle for vertical flight, and the two companies completed integration and engine light-off testing at Peebles, Ohio in July 2026, ahead of a first flight targeted for 2026, mission capability in 2028 and production in 2029. In March 2026 Shield AI raised $1.5 billion in Series G funding at a $12.7 billion post-money valuation, agreed to acquire simulation company Aechelon Technology, and secured $500 million of preferred equity from Blackstone plus a $250 million delayed draw facility.