The US Army said late Friday that it has signed a 10-year contract with defense tech startup Anduril. The deal could be worth up to $20 billion.
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The report said the funding would help the company build its first major weapons manufacturing facility and develop an autonomous fighter jet.
According to the announcement, the contract begins with a five-year base period. It includes an option to extend it for another five years, covering Anduril’s hardware, software, infrastructure and services. The enterprise agreement is designed to streamline procurement and speed up access to technology. Separately, Anduril is reportedly exploring a new funding round that could value the company at around $60 billion.
“This streamlined approach reduces procurement timelines, ensuring Soldiers have rapid access to cutting-edge software platforms.., integrated hardware, data and compute infrastructure, and a full range of ancillary support services,” the announcement added.
In a post on X, Luckey said Anthropic’s effort to limit the use of AI in areas like autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance is “an untenable position that the United States cannot accept.”
Luckey has often said the media misrepresented his political views. However, a recent New York Times report said Luckey and Anduril have gained support from the second Trump administration because of his vision to modernize the US military with autonomous fighter jets, drones, submarines, and other systems. The company, named after a magical object in *The Lord of the Rings* like Palantir, generated about $2 billion in revenue last year, according to the report.
The Army describes the agreement as a single enterprise contract consolidating what had been “more than 120 separate procurement actions for Anduril’s commercial solutions.”
Anduril was last valued at $30.5 billion during a $2.5 billion funding round in June last year.
Gabe Chiulli, Chief Technology Officer at the Office of the Chief Information Officer, said, “The modern battlefield is increasingly driven by software. To stay ahead, we must acquire and deploy software quickly and efficiently. Enterprise contracts help support our modernization strategy by combining software agreements, reducing duplication, and speeding up the delivery of critical tools.”
Anduril was co-founded by Palmer Luckey, who was previously known for selling VR startup Oculus to Facebook (now Meta). Facebook fired Luckey after controversy erupted following a news report that he’d donated to a pro-Trump political group.
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