This might be one of the biggest advantages of building defense tech close to the battlefield.
Idea → field testing → first military customer in weeks.
War compresses the feedback loop between engineers and users in a way almost no traditional procurement process can.
The companies learning fastest may end up building fastest too.
we missed our entire YC batch to build in Ukraine.
we went from idea to field testing, landed $500M in LOIs, and sold 45 units to a special forces unit
all in 8 weeks.
some things you just can’t build in SF
Smack Technologies raised $61M to build AI tools for battlefield decision-making.
The interesting part isn’t just the round.
The Pentagon is actively looking for more AI suppliers, and startups are increasingly moving from experimentation into real procurement.
That’s an important shift for defense tech.
The opportunity is no longer only in building better models. It’s in getting them deployed inside real military workflows.
One of Europe’s biggest private defense-tech companies is looking toward Japan.
Helsing is working with Rakuten to pursue opportunities with the Japanese military, bringing its AI-enabled drones and autonomous systems into another major defense market.
The more interesting part is how Helsing is getting into the market.
Rakuten is helping it navigate local procurement and reach Japanese defense buyers.
It’s a reminder that in defense tech, entering a new market can depend as much on access and procurement relationships as the technology itself.
1.5% goes into private market investments
Companies shaping the next decade of defense are all private. And that's where all the multiples are made.
We're sourcing the best dealflow, and investing through primary rounds and secondaries.
Access without expertise is a casino. Expertise without access is a castle.
Memecoins solved access. VC solved selection. Nobody solved both.
Tokenized closed-end funds are the obvious next primitive and almost nobody is building them properly yet. https://t.co/ZdzkY1NUbw
Private defense-tech is having a breakout moment.
Anduril’s valuation has grown 13x from $4.6B to $61B in five years.
Defense-tech VC funding hit record levels in 2025.
Until now, access was largely limited to top VCs.
DefenseStrategy changes that.
Launching soon.
RT & comment your address.
Retail was promised the future three times.
First, public markets promised that anyone could own the companies changing the world. But increasingly, those companies spend a decade or more compounding in private before ordinary investors are allowed through the door.
Then crypto promised open markets.
But much of it recreated the same hierarchy: private rounds entered early, retail was dumped on.
Then memecoins put everyone at the same starting line. No closed boardroom. No accredited-investor gate. No IPO allocation.
But equal access to a ticker was not the same as ownership in something being built. We do not need another casino. We need access to the layer where the future is actually being created.
Defense.
AI.
Autonomy.
Robotics.
Cyber.
Space.
Energy.
Advanced manufacturing.
Most of the top companies in those sectors are private. SpaceX had a 15,000x multiple from Seed to IPO. And is currently below the IPO opening price - private investors made a fortune, while retail got dumped on again.
We had countless projects try to put actual companies onchain - @MetaDAOProject, @believeapp, @daosdotfun. But none of them succeed. A company that already has VC funding doesn’t need to go onchain.
We need meet companies them where they are. To build a bridge between private innovation and onchain capital.
That is why we are building DefenseStrategy: tokenized fund designed to allow anyone to invest in leading private defense companies.
A bridge between the builders of the future and the people who believe in it.
The defense supercycle, onchain.
(notifs on)
History clearly shows: defense doesn't just protect the future. It invents it.
The internet. GPS. Semiconductors. Aerospace.
Now defense sits at the intersection of AI, autonomy, robotics and space.
THE NEXT DECADE IS DEFENSE.
DEFENSESTRATEGY IS HOW WE PARTICIPATE IN THE UPSIDE.
Palantir's opportunity is to become the place where machine intelligence meets institutional reality. If it succeeds - it will help determine how the world's most important organizations see, decide, and act. https://t.co/GJKlP8Wyyg