Dutch military backs Intelic’s drone software with tens of millions of euros
Dutch military backs Intelic’s drone software with tens of millions of euros

The three-year deal aims to let drones from different manufacturers operate under one command system, a lesson the Netherlands says it has drawn from Ukraine. The Netherlands’ Ministry of Defence is putting tens of millions of euros into Intelic, a Dut…

Quantum Systems raises $1.2bn and doubles its valuation to $8bn as defence money floods in
Quantum Systems raises $1.2bn and doubles its valuation to $8bn as defence money floods in

Europe has a new defence-tech heavyweight. Quantum Systems, a German maker of autonomous drones, has raised $1.2bn and more than doubled its valuation to about $8bn. It is one of the largest rounds ever for a European defence startup. The Bavarian comp…

Palantir’s ‘AI sovereignty’ manifesto is a war on how AI makes money
Palantir’s ‘AI sovereignty’ manifesto is a war on how AI makes money

Palantir has a new enemy, and it is the way most of the AI industry makes money. Its nine-point manifesto tells institutions to hoard their data, own their model weights, and stop “tokenmaxxing.” It is a pitch dressed as a principle. On Tuesday, Palant…

Ottawa’s Dominion Dynamics raises CA$139M, a record for Canadian defence
Ottawa’s Dominion Dynamics raises CA$139M, a record for Canadian defence

Canada just produced the biggest Series A in its defence history. The money is going into autonomous drones and the software to run a war in the Arctic. Dominion Dynamics, an Ottawa defence-technology company, has raised CA$139mn ($100mn) in a Series A…

Marc Andreessen joins the Pentagon’s board, and the old line blurs
Marc Andreessen joins the Pentagon’s board, and the old line blurs

Andreessen now advises the Pentagon’s leadership on the very decisions his firm has invested billions around. It is legal, and it raises a question the rules were built to answer. Pete Hegseth announced the membership of a freshly cleared-out Defense P…

Taiwan’s drone defence debate heats up as opposition pushes rival plan
Taiwan’s drone defence debate heats up as opposition pushes rival plan

The opposition KMT is proposing NT$240bn for unmanned systems just days after stalling the government’s plan, in a fight with real implications for the island’s defence. Few militaries have watched the war in Ukraine more closely than Taiwan’s, and the…

Germany wants Helsing to build the brain of its next air war
Germany wants Helsing to build the brain of its next air war

Germany is quietly building its own brain for future air warfare, and it wants Helsing to write the code. Berlin is lining up a €580mn contract for the Munich AI firm. The software would link fighters, drones, satellites and sensors, according to docum…

China hits back at the Pentagon with curbs on 56 US firms
China hits back at the Pentagon with curbs on 56 US firms

China’s new trade curbs target 56 US companies, from rare-earth miners to drone makers. It is direct retaliation for Washington adding Chinese firms to its military blacklist. China has answered the Pentagon’s blacklist with one of its own. On Monday, …

Canada buys Australian Arctic radar in A$2.5bn defence-export first
Canada buys Australian Arctic radar in A$2.5bn defence-export first

Australia has been refining the same unusual piece of radar for decades, a system that bounces signals off the ionosphere to see thousands of kilometres past the curve of the Earth, and for all that time it kept the technology to itself. On Sunday it s…

While Helsing and Anduril chase billion-dollar valuations, Comand AI raised €32M for the layer above them
While Helsing and Anduril chase billion-dollar valuations, Comand AI raised €32M for the layer above them

The defence-tech land grab has a new front, and it sits above the drones and sensors that get the headlines. Comand AI, a Paris startup building AI software for military command, has raised a €32mn Series A led by Blossom Capital, with a strategic inve…