Mega Funding Round Makes Anduril Cofounder A Billionaire

Forbes

The recent funding round led by Founders Fund valued the hot military startup at $30 billion – and made its chairman Trae Stephens the latest defense tech billionaire.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2025/06/10/trae-stephens-anduril-billionaire/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Mega Funding Round makes Anduril co-founder a billionaire.

00:07In early June, Anduril announced that it had raised a mega funding round led by Founders Fund,

00:13valuing the company at more than $30 billion, doubling its valuation in less than a year.

00:20The deal also minted a new defense tech billionaire, company chairman Trey Stevens.

00:26The Forbes Midas List alum, who is also a partner at Founders Fund,

00:30which led the round with a $1 billion investment its largest ever, owns more than 3% of Anduril,

00:36according to Forbes' estimates, pushing his net worth beyond $1 billion.

00:42Stevens and Anduril declined to comment.

00:45Booming investor appetite for military startups has helped make Stevens the latest entrant to

00:50a group of billionaires who have built fortunes selling weapons systems to the government.

00:55His Anduril co-founder, Palmer Luckey, is worth $3.6 billion, Forbes estimates,

01:00while Alex Karp, the co-founder and CEO of military software firm Palantir, is worth $11.9 billion.

01:09Since launching in 2017, Anduril has been at the forefront of a new generation of venture-backed

01:14startups making weapons, drones, and software for the military, an ecosystem that is increasingly

01:21being embraced by the Trump administration. Last month, Anduril emerged as a front-runner,

01:26alongside SpaceX and Palantir, to develop a weapons system for Trump's proposed $175 billion

01:33Golden Dome for America plan, which aims to combat missile threats.

01:38Stevens has taken an atypical route to becoming a Silicon Valley billionaire. After stints in multiple

01:44political offices and the intelligence community, he was an early employee at Palantir, which was

01:50co-founded by Peter Thiel. The famed investor convinced him to join Founders Fund in 2014 as a

01:56partner. There, he met Luckey during a retreat hosted by the investment firm, and the two developed

02:02the idea behind Anduril, applying a Silicon Valley strategy to a military-facing business.

02:08At Founders Fund, Stevens has also backed other defense tech companies, including Gecko Robotics,

02:14valued at over $600 million, which makes hardware and software to protect defense infrastructure,

02:20and Varda Space Industries, valued at more than $500 million, which tests drugs and manufactures things

02:27like fiber-optic cables in space. He also led the Series A funding round into supply chain logistics

02:33startup Flexport, most recently publicly valued at $8 billion. He previously told Forbes,

02:41that, quote, check that I wrote was maybe the best one, aside from Anduril.

02:46Beyond Anduril and Founders Fund, Stevens, who ranked number 19 on the 2025 Midas list,

02:53also is the co-founder of Sol, a startup making eyeglasses with Kindle-style lenses for so-called

02:59immersive reading, that last raised a seed funding round led by YC Combinator chief Gary Tan in 2023.

03:07Stevens, who previously worked on President Donald Trump's transition team during his first term,

03:12was also considered for a senior defense department role this year, but it didn't materialize. Citing

03:17one source, Semaphore, previously reported that some administration officials were concerned

03:22about Stevens' investments. Stevens declined to comment at the time.

03:28At Anduril, which generated $1 billion in revenue last year, Stevens is aiming to scale up production

03:34of its suite of military products. The company, which sells drones, augmented reality helmets,

03:40sensors, and software to connect them, raised $1.5 billion last year to build a factory in Ohio,

03:47called Arsenal One, to rapidly scale up its production of aerial and maritime drones.

03:53And last month, Anduril announced it was partnering with Meta to make an AI-powered headset for the

03:58military. The fresh $2.5 billion in funding, a Series G round, will also be used to acquire new

04:06companies and expand operations in Australia and Europe. This, according to what spokesperson Shannon

04:12Pryor told Forbes in early June. For full coverage, check out David Jean's and Phoebe Lou's piece on

04:20Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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