How Anduril and other startups are building military ready, self-piloted drones, away from Silicon Valley, where such projects have become politically untenable
While much has been made of tech's unwillingness to work with the Pentagon, start-ups are still plumbing the industry's decades-long ties to the military. Tweets: @comfortablysmug , @jessedamiani , @diu_x , @puiwingtam , @cademetz , @carissaveliz , @elkeschwarz , and @cnbcjosh Tweets: Comfortably Smug / @comfortablysmug : Thank God we have patriots like @PalmerLuckey focusing their talents on keeping America safe. @anduriltech is one of the most amazing startups of the past decade. Can not wait to see what they come up with next. https://www.nytimes.com/... Jesse Damiani / @jessedamiani : Away From Silicon Valley, the Military Is the Ideal Customer. While much has been made of tech's unwillingness to work with the Pentagon, start-ups are still plumbing the industry's decades-long ties to the military. https://www.nytimes.com/... DefenseInnovationUnit / @diu_x : Even in Silicon Valley, Military is a good customer. Great to see the good work of some of @DIU_x's portfolio companies featured in @CadeMetz @nytimes article today. @anduriltech @shieldaitech @SkydioHQ https://www.nytimes.com/... Pui-Wing Tam / @puiwingtam : The history of Silicon Valley involves tech cos. growing big because of government defense contracts. Militarization of tech is now anathema to many but in SoCal, Palmer Luckey's startup is eagerly pushing drones to the military. @CadeMetz https://www.nytimes.com/... Cade Metz / @cademetz : Last month, I visited a site near a Southern California Marine base where a start-up called @anduriltech is testing autonomous flying drones. The ebullient @PalmerLuckey made it clear that the tech industry is closer to the military than it might seem: https://www.nytimes.com/... Carissa Vliz / @carissaveliz : When reading about military and #surveillance #drones, do you get the sense that this #technology is a step towards building a better world or a worse world? The shrugging off of ethical concerns might be a hint. https://www.nytimes.com/... Elke Schwarz / @elkeschwarz : “The drones are not armed, but could be useful for guarding bases or reconnaissance. The same sensor technologies that allow the drones to fly on their own could also be used to identify targets on a battlefield” 🧐https://www.nytimes.com/ ... Josh Lipton / @cnbcjosh : .@PalmerLuckey: “We are 400 miles away from Silicon Valley. Attitudes in Orange County have always been more pro-military.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Anduril has been building toward this for years: it unveiled an autonomous drone that flies itself, forms a data-sharing swarm, and tracks people and equipment with AI back in September 2020, and testing now happens near a Southern California Marine base rather than in the Bay Area. The geography is the story — the same industry that saw employee revolts over Pentagon contracts is spawning defense startups in Orange County, where the political cost of military work is lower.
First-order effects
- Anduril, Shield AI, and Skydio — all highlighted by the Defense Innovation Unit as portfolio companies — get a clearer path to the U.S. military as an anchor customer for unarmed, self-piloted drones that guard bases and identify battlefield targets.
- Entrenched weapons makers face new competition from startups that the Pentagon is actively cultivating, though Shield AI's struggles against incumbent contractors show procurement remains the bottleneck.
Second-order effects
- Capital follows the customers: VCs put $108B into defense tech between 2021 and 2023 as tech workers, spurred by geopolitical threats, embraced battlefield tech, reinforcing the Southern California cluster and pulling talent out of consumer tech.
- Militaries beyond the U.S. validate the model — NATO announced a ~$1B fund for startups developing priority tech like AI after the Ukraine war prompted increased investment, giving Anduril-class firms a second buyer pool.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the center of gravity for military AI shifts structurally away from Silicon Valley's culture and toward state-aligned industrial clusters, with ethicists like Carissa Vliz and Elke Schwarz raising unresolved questions about sensors that identify human targets.
- The same autonomous-tracking capability moving into base defense is already deployed domestically — [[a:960737|police departments in California and Georgia began using autonomous drones to track vehicles and people]], foreshadowing a regulatory fight over dual-use surveillance.
The trend: Defense AI is consolidating into state-compatible labs built outside traditional tech hubs, as venture capital, geopolitical threat perception, and Pentagon demand converge on autonomous systems.