DEPLOYDatabase

Company

Shield AI

droneshield.ai

American defense-autonomy company (San Diego, founded 2015 by Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng, and Andrew Reiter) building the Hivemind AI pilot and the V-BAT VTOL…

Track Shield AI
Founded
2015
HQ
San Diego, California, USA
Status
Private

The verified answer

As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies Shield AI: 2 models, 8 deployments across 5 regions, $4.2B raised, 1 active incident. 15 sources back the record.

CategoryDrones

Appears inMilitary & defense drones

Funding

$4.2B

Models

2

Deployments

8

Employees

1k

Patents

1

Overview

American defense-autonomy company (San Diego, founded 2015 by Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng, and Andrew Reiter) building the Hivemind AI pilot and the V-BAT VTOL drone. Hivemind flies aircraft without GPS, communications, or a human pilot. Raised $2B at a $12.7B valuation in March 2026; Gary Steele became CEO in 2025 (effective May).

Verified record

Verified deployments
8 deployments on file
Active incidents
1 incident on file

Valuation of record

DEPLOY VERIFIED
$10B (reported, approximate)as of Jun 2026

Priced roundSeries G post-money

See the full valuations ranking →

Key facts

Founded

2015, San Diego, by Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng, and Andrew Reiter

Valuationsee valuations ranking →

$2B Series G at $12.7B (Mar 2026); prior $240M at $5.3B (Mar 2025)

Revenue

~$540M projected for 2026 (2025 ~$300M); not yet profitable

Leadership

CEO Gary Steele (announced Mar 2025, effective May 2025); co-founder Ryan Tseng is President

Software

Hivemind AI pilot / autonomy stack (flies aircraft GPS- and comms-denied)

Data & sources

Press releases

4

News coverage

5

Patent documents

1

Web sources

5

15 sources backing this record.View all →

Partnerships

Every company Shield AI has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.

6 total5 operating1 just announced1 ended

Most-frequent partners

  1. 1US Air Force2× joint
  2. 2Aechelon Technology1× joint
  3. 3Airbus1× joint1 total
  4. 4Northrop Grumman1× joint
  5. 5Palantir1× joint

Most recent

  1. US Air Force CCA Mission Autonomy x Shield AI2026-06-17
    with US Air Forceoperating
  2. Shield AI x US Air Force CCA Production Contract2026-06-15
    with US Air Forceoperating
  3. Shield AI x Palantir AI-powered autonomous aircraft2026-06-01
    with Palantiroperating
  4. Shield AI acquires Aechelon Technology2026-03-26
    with Aechelon Technologyoperating
  5. Northrop Grumman x Shield AI2026-03-19
    with Northrop Grummanoperating

Relationships

UUS Air ForceCustomerPPalantirCo-developerNNorthrop GrummanCo-developerAAirbusCo-developerAAechelon TechnologyCo-developerAAdvent InternationalInvestorJJPMorganChase Strategic Investment GroupInvestorSSnowpoint VenturesInvestorIInnovationXInvestorRRiot VenturesInvestor

Claims ledger

Public, dated claims by Shield AI, each tracked against the evidence. Status is a DEPLOY assessment from primary sources: verified means an independent source confirms it; contradicted means one refutes it; open means the outcome is not yet determinable. Every entry keeps its verbatim quote and source so you can check the call yourself.

Claim Integrity: 100% (3 of 3 resolved claims verified; 4 tracked)
  • VerifiedCustomer · claimed 2026-06-15
    “Shield AI completes acquisition of Aechelon Technology”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim
  • VerifiedCustomer · claimed 2026-01-01
    “Shield AI surpasses 130 V-BAT sorties in Ukraine in partnership with Ukrainian forces”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim
  • VerifiedCapability · claimed 2026-01-01
    “Built for GPS- and communications-denied environments, V-BAT has demonstrated exceptional performance in contested electromagnetic conditions”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    claim sourcecite this claim
  • OpenCapability · claimed 2026-01-01
    “V-BAT Teams enables multiple V-BATs to autonomously execute missions in electronically contested environments while reading and reacting to”

    Multi-drone autonomous team operations have been demonstrated (YouTube video) but not independently verified in combat at scale. Single V-BAT autonomy is combat-verified; multi-drone teaming is demonstrated but not yet combat-proven. https://shield.ai/v-bat/

    claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim

Disagree with a status? Shield AI can submit a correction with evidence and we log the response on the record. Methodology and the full industry ledger live at /stats/claim-integrity.

Explainers

Plain-language answers to the questions people ask about Shield AI, from DEPLOY’s explainer library. Each is written in the language of the question and cross-checked against this registry.

What is an autonomous drone?
An autonomous drone is an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) whose flight is directed by onboard AI + autonomy stack rather than continuous human remote-piloting. Per DEPLOY's framework, the cohort splits across three classes with distinct verification anchors: new-defense (Anduril Roadrunner/Fury/Ghost/Bolt + Helsing HX-2/HF-1 + Shield AI V-BAT + Quantum Systems + Neros); legacy-prime (General Atomics MQ-9 lifecycle); commercial-civilian (Skydio + Zipline + Wing + Matternet + Brinc + Wingcopter + XAG + Percepto + Flytrex). Gating events split by class: BVLOS regulatory clearance for commercial; DoD contracts + fielded systems for defense. Editorial discipline: remotely-piloted-vs-autonomous honesty matters; MQ-9 + TB2 + Neros Archer are recorded as remotely-piloted, not autonomous. The framework resists 'drone = AI' inflation.Read the full explainer →
What is Shield AI?
Shield AI is the alternate Western new-defense AI-first drone + defense systems company. The flagship V-BAT operates as commercial fielded systems with US defense; the Hivemind autonomy stack operates as a separate Brain entity per DEPLOY registry (Agent A corrected an earlier cross-property conflation that miswired Hivemind to Anduril). V-BAT + Hivemind together form one of the more substantive verified autonomy stacks in the new-defense cohort. The Hivemind-vs-Lattice contrast (Shield AI's vs Anduril's brain stacks) makes the technical-substrate distinction legible. Per DEPLOY's framework, Shield AI anchors new-defense AI-first class alongside Anduril + Helsing.Read the full explainer →
What is the Shield AI V-BAT?
The V-BAT is a vertical-takeoff surveillance and reconnaissance drone from Shield AI, designated the MQ-35. It takes off and lands vertically from a small footprint, runs Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy stack, and is built to keep working when GPS and communications are jammed. It is at the production stage, fielded in Ukraine and selected by the US Coast Guard.Read the full explainer →
Is the V-BAT autonomous?
Yes on flight autonomy, with one honest split. The Shield AI V-BAT runs the Hivemind autonomy stack and is built to keep flying in GPS-denied and communications-denied conditions, which is verified on the registry. The multi-aircraft swarm and contested-environment performance, however, are Shield AI's own claims.Read the full explainer →

Current leadership (11)

Founders (3)

See all founders across the registry →

Board (8)

Former / Previously (2)

  • Ryan Tseng Co-founder & former CEOsecondary-verified
  • Jacob Zietek Engineering Intern, reinforcement learningreported, not verified

Safety record

1 incident on record (1 serious). Most recent: May 2026.

serious
1

Most recent: May 2026

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →

Incidents affecting Shield AI (1)

Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Operator customers (1)

Brains developed (1)

Recent coverage

Shield AI in third-party press

Shield AI Delivers First V-BAT to Taiwan Coast Guard

Oct 15, 2026

Taiwan Coast Guard receives first batch of V-BAT UAVs from Shield AI

Oct 13, 2026

White House vs. Microsoft, AI fighter jets, and a visit to a startup founder’s Seattle recording studio

Oct 10, 2026

Peers

98 peers across 1 segment. Every Shield AI competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.

drone(98)

57 companies in this segment · moderately_concentrated (HHI 1809.2177305910177) · leader Anduril Industries at 3057%

Mentioned on (36)

Registry pages whose text names Shield AI.

Companies (1)

USIT

AI systems (1)

Shield AI Hivemind