Anduril Industries is an American defense technology company founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, the creator of the Oculus VR headset, along with co-founders including Trae Stephens, Brian Schimpf, Matt Grimm, and Joe Chen. The company builds AI-powered autonomous systems for defense and national security customers.
Anduril's core platform is Lattice, an AI-driven command-and-control software layer that fuses sensor data and coordinates autonomous and human-operated assets. The company also produces hardware including autonomous drones, counter-UAS systems, sentry surveillance towers, underwater vehicles, and loitering munitions, taking a vertically integrated approach to designing, building, and deploying its products.
The company differs from traditional defense contractors by self-funding product development and selling finished, software-defined systems rather than relying solely on cost-plus government contracts. It has raised very large venture rounds from prominent investors, reaching a multi-billion-dollar valuation, and has won significant U.S. and allied defense programs.
Anduril competes with both legacy defense primes and newer defense-tech entrants. Its differentiators include rapid iteration, a software-first architecture, autonomy at scale, and a commercial-style development model applied to defense.
For defense and national-security customers seeking modern AI-enabled autonomous capabilities deployed quickly, Anduril is a leading provider, though its work is necessarily limited to vetted government and allied buyers and is subject to defense procurement constraints.