Defense technology startup Anduril Industries Inc. today announced that it has raised $2.5 billion in new funding.

Lead investor Founders Fund contributed $1 billion to the round. According to Anduril, a number of unnamed returning backers participated as well. The investment values the company at $30.5 billion, more than double what it was worth following a funding round last August.

Anduril develops hardware systems for the defense sector. Its product portfolio includes aircraft, autonomous submarines, edge computing devices and a range of other products. The systems are powered by an internally-developed software platform called Lattice that automates tasks such as analyzing sensor data.

Anduril co-founder Trae Stephens, a partner at Founders Fund, told Bloomberg that the new capital will be used to tackle “manufacturing and production problem sets.”

Following its previous funding round last year, Anduril announced plans to build a factory called Arsenal-1. The company estimated at the time that the initiative would cost several hundred million dollars and create over 1,500 jobs. Earlier this year, it broadened the scope of the investment. Anduril now plans to spend more than $1 billion on the plant and estimates that it will create more than 4,000 jobs.

Anduril expects Arsenal-1 to produce tens of thousands of defense systems per year. The company hopes to use commercial manufacturing equipment to make those systems. The factory’s production lines will be powered by a custom operating system, Arsenal OS, that Anduril says will also be used for product development initiatives.

The company has indicated that it intends to add more manufacturing capacity down the line. It disclosed in January that the Columbus, Ohio site where Arsenal-1 is located has 500 acres available for additional facilities. Additionally, Anduril has announced plans to build a second factory called Arsenal-2 at an unspecified future date.

In addition to supporting manufacturing initiatives, the new capital could also make it easier for the company to finance its product development efforts. Anduril has debuted multiple products since its August funding round. One of the company’s newest systems is a subsea sensor, Seabed Sentry, that can operate at depths of more than 1,600 feet. It uses Anduril’s Lattice software to process the data it collects.

Today’s funding round comes a few days after the company partnered with Meta Platforms Inc. to develop wearables for the defense sector. The product lineup is expected to include helmets, glasses and other devices with mixed reality features. The two companies reportedly plan to compete for a U.S Army technology procurement contract that could be worth as much as $22 billion. 

Photo: Anduril