1. Anduril

Founders: Brian Schimpf (CEO), Palmer Luckey, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joe Chen
Launched: 2017
Headquarters: Costa Mesa, California
Funding: $6.3 billion
Valuation: $30.5 billion
Key Technologies: Artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, edge computing, explainable AI, generative AI, machine learning, robotics, software-defined security
Industry: Defense
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 3 (No. 2 in 2024)

Over the last year, Anduril has struck a series of deals that demonstrate the company's growth from a disruptive defense industry startup to one of the leaders in a critical sector.

In April 2024, Anduril was one of two companies selected by the U.S. Air Force to build and test drone prototypes for the service's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, the first in a new generation of uncrewed fighter aircraft, and a contract in which it beat out traditional defense stalwarts Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

And as defense moves into the AI era, Anduril has also been working more closely with the tech sector to create the military of the future. In December, Anduril partnered with fellow Disruptor 50 company OpenAI on deployment of an advanced AI system for U.S. counter-unmanned aircraft systems to be used in "national security missions."

In February, Anduril took over Microsoft's multibillion-dollar Integrated Visual Augmentation System wearables program with the U.S. Army, a contract that was valued at nearly $22 billion. Then in May, Anduril teamed up with Meta to develop the VR and AR headsets for use by the U.S. Army as part of that program.

"Anduril has a lot of traction," founder Palmer Luckey said in a CNBC interview in February.

That traction has led to a rapid rise in the company's valuation. Last August, Anduril closed a Series F round, valuing the company at $14 billion and securing $1.5 billion in funding to build a more than five-million-square-foot factory, in addition to other investments in production across multiple states and in Australia. An announcement last week of a $2.5 billion Series G more than doubled that valuation to $30.5 billion, making it one of the most highly valued private tech companies in the U.S.

It's hard to separate any one accomplishment from the rest for Anduril, but perhaps it's the company's push into the military headsets that signals the next era of disruption for the company but also takes things back full circle for Luckey, who sold his headset startup Oculus VR to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, and was unceremoniously fired just a few years later.

"Anduril builds a lot of different systems across a lot of different domains — so air, land, sea, subsea, space, cyberspace, and eventually subterranean," Luckey said in the February CNBC interview. "[Integrated visual augmentation systems] and systems like it are going to be the portal through which the warfighter commands and controls all of these different autonomous weapons and autonomous sensors."

Luckey has spoken at length about his vision of putting such a tool in the hands of soldiers, in a vein that maybe still seems science fiction film and writing, but which he says will create a world that grants "not just the ability to see the thermal, visual and near IR spectrum, but the ability to see into a digital model of the past, present and future, and just seamlessly team with large packs of autonomous weapons."

Of Anduril's deal with Meta, Luckey said, "Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that."

With technology, warfare and defense becoming more intertwined, and at a time of increased focus on efficient government budgets that Anduril's product-based model is based on, the company is clearly now one of the major players in a sector it set out to disrupt only a few years ago, and is perhaps even starting to chart a path well beyond the battlefield.

"I'm a believer that we're going to mediate our view of the world with technology," Palmer told CNBC.