As geopolitical tensions increase, artificial intelligence advances proliferate, and investors look for a new growth area despite a broader tech sector slump, funding for defense tech businesses has surged in 2024.
Archer Aviation is interested in participating.
The aviation startup, which is developing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, announced on Thursday that it has established a new Archer Defense program and raised an additional $430 million in equity from both new institutional investors. Such as Wellington Management and 2PointZero, an Abu Dhabi investment holding company, and existing investors, Stellantis and United. With the increase. Archer has raised about $2 billion in total funding.
In order to create a hybrid gas-and-electric-powered VTOL aircraft for vital defense applications, Archer and weapons maker Anduril have entered into an exclusive cooperation as part of that initiative. The businesses said that Archer will build the aircraft at its Georgia factory, where it is presently collaborating with Stellantis to begin mass-producing its Midnight electric VTOLs at scale this month. They did not provide any further specifics regarding the aircraft. Beginning in 2025, Archer intends to use the Midnight to introduce air taxi networks.
The company decided to create a hybrid vehicle to accommodate the performance improvements in speed, range, and payload needed for defense missions. Hence it retains the advantages of an electric system, such as a low noise profile.
This year, Anduril has been the top recipient of defense tech investment. The business has a reputation for bringing a Silicon Valley mindset to defense production. That is known for slowly raising a $1.5 billion Series F in August to grow production of its autonomous military weapons. Palmer Luckey, the renowned and occasionally contentious founder of Anduril, who developed Oculus VR before selling it to Meta for $2 billion, has aspirations to make his business the next great American defense contractor.
Anduril currently produces a number of aerial systems, including reasonably priced drones that it has allegedly supplied to financially challenged Ukraine in order to support the nation’s conflict with Russia. However, the primary element of Anduril’s collaboration with Archer will be its software.
Read More News
