Overview
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide.
Shield AI was founded by three co-founders, one of them a former Navy SEAL, to bring AI and autonomy technology to the U.S. Department of Defense and allied forces. The company saw an opening in the shortage of software and AI engineering talent at large defense primes and focuses on AI pilots, with the aim of powering military assets such as aircraft, drones, ships, satellites and submarines. Its work combines software, AI and hardware engineering, and its offerings also include vision systems.
Hivemind is an autonomy stack for aircraft designed to be modular and human-directable, intended to keep missions going in contested and degraded environments where platforms lose communications and manual control falters. Platforms flown with Hivemind include the MQ-20 Avenger, the X-62 VISTA and Kratos MQM-178 Firejet drones.
Funding rounds
Disclosed funding: $2.71B across 21 rounds. Latest: SERIES H, 1 Sep 2026.
6 rounds have an undisclosed amount, not included in the total.
| Date | Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Sep 2026 | SERIES H | Not disclosed |
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Latest videos from Shield AI on YouTube
Mission Autonomy for Air Dominance | Powered by Hivemind
Advanced Maritime Autonomy | SeaShark Powered by Hivemind
Control Drones with Text Prompts
Autonomous Maritime Teaming | K3 SCOUT Powered by Hivemind
Recent posts from the Shield AI blog
- Six Weeks to Sea: Hivemind Brings Thunder Tiger’s SeaSharks Together
As an island nation, maritime awareness is essential to Taiwan’s national security. Its coastline stretches more than 1,500 kilometers across the main island and outlying islands, so keeping watch over the surrounding waters requires vessels, sensors, and operators spread over a wide area.
- Inside Hivemind’s first maritime teaming mission.
In six weeks, two Thunder Tiger SeaSharks moved from integration to live sea trials in Taiwan’s Dapeng Bay. Hivemind fused radar and AIS data into one shared track, shifted the vessels from patrol to escort, and returned each to its assigned sector without manual repositioning.