An Arms Dealer Joins Silicon Valley’s Military Boom

Forbes

Will Somerindyke founded a military supply chain and logistics company called Regulus Global a decade ago. Now, he’s raising hundreds of millions for a new defense tech play — and Regulus is the first customer.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2025/07/01/union-regulus-will-somerindyke/  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, an arms dealer joined Silicon Valley's military boom.

00:07For years, Will Samarandike sold weapons of war around the world — artillery shells

00:12to Ukraine, grenades to U.S.-backed rebels in Syria.

00:16With relationships with dozens of top military buyers, he quickly turned his company, Regulus

00:21Global, into one of America's major international arms dealers.

00:25Now, as Silicon Valley investors swarm to back multi-million dollar defense startups

00:31with increasing fervor, Samarandike is looking to make the jump from munitions middleman

00:36to manufacturer.

00:37He's been quietly working on Union, a new venture-backed startup he claims will modernize ammunition

00:44factories with autonomous robotics and precision machining.

00:48Samarandike told Forbes, quote,

00:51I've been through a lot in 18 years in this space.

00:53If Union does its job correctly, we will be building millions of square feet of facilities

00:58with the ability to make a wide range of defense products.

01:01Union, which Samarandike leads as CEO, appears to have made a solid start.

01:07In April, it secured a massive $50 million seed funding round led by Bravo Victor Venture

01:13Capital, or BVVC.

01:15Other investors include Silent Ventures, Iron Gate, and RKKVC, a Poland-based single-family

01:22office.

01:23It plans to open its first artillery shell factory in Texas this summer.

01:27And it recently secured a contract to sell those shells, which, if fulfilled, could bring

01:32in up to $225 million, according to Samarandike.

01:38The customer behind that first contract is Regulus, where Samarandike remains chairman and majority

01:43owner, putting him on both sides of the company-client relationship.

01:48Regulus is also an investor in Union.

01:51Samarandike said that Union has, quote, put all the parameters in place to avoid conflict

01:56of interest.

01:57He added, quote, this is a great partnership between Regulus and Union because we have

02:01similar goals and needs.

02:02Regulus just happens to be the first customer.

02:06Samarandike declined to say who the intended customer is for the shells Regulus plans to

02:10purchase from Union.

02:13In addition, Joe Musselman, BVVC's managing partner, is incubating Union out of the venture

02:19fund and is serving as Union's chairman and as an investor.

02:22He said his limited partners were untroubled by Union's CEO maintaining a management role

02:27at its largest customer.

02:29Musselman said, quote, you have to find people that are already working on a problem set,

02:34and that's something that Will has been doing for a long time.

02:38Union is now in talks to raise a Series A funding round, which, Musselman claims, has,

02:43quote, hundreds of millions of dollars committed from investors.

02:47Jackson Moses, managing partner of Silent Ventures, backed Union's seed funding round

02:52because he sees the company as, quote, critical national infrastructure.

02:56He intends to, quote, meaningfully invest in the upcoming Series A.

03:00He said, quote, Will and Joe are uniquely qualified to successfully execute Union's mission.

03:07The idea for Union was to solve munitions shortages across the West, a reality Somarandike was intimately

03:13familiar with sourcing artillery shells for Ukraine through Regulus.

03:18The U.S. Army, for example, which pays companies like General Dynamics to make its 155-millimeter

03:23shells, has invested $5 billion in opening new manufacturing facilities to make more than

03:29100,000 shells a month, though it is currently said to be, quote, months behind that goal.

03:36But instead of approaching the problem with old-school manufacturing, Somarandike and Musselman,

03:40who met more than a decade ago through a program for veterans, saw an opportunity to modernize

03:45weapons manufacturing and are using Silicon Valley software talent to implement autonomous

03:50systems.

03:51Since incorporating in October, Union has hired a suite of engineers from Tesla, SpaceX, and

03:57Anduril.

03:59Musselman has touted recent momentum to, quote, re-industrialize America and bring manufacturing

04:04back to the U.S. as necessary to combating China's manufacturing superiority.

04:10Other companies have joined the effort, including Hadrian, which does autonomous manufacturing,

04:15and Rebuild, a Massachusetts-based company that has been acquiring mom-and-pop factories

04:20and modernizing them.

04:22Both could compete with Union's entry into the market.

04:25Musselman has also invested in other defense companies.

04:28After starting BVVC in 2023, he has written checks into drone company Firestorm and autonomous

04:34submarine startup, Vatten Systems.

04:38For full coverage, check out David Jeans' piece on Forbes.com.

04:43This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:45Thanks for tuning in.

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