Nine Drone Startups Split Pentagon 60,000-Unit Order That Bars All China-Made Parts

The Information reports nine drone startups — including Eric Schmidt's Perennial and companies backed by the Trump family — will split US DoD orders for 60,000 drones under a Drone Dominance competition that requires zero China-sourced components. Reporter Steve LeVine says the Pentagon 'threw up its arms in frustration' last month when most competitors couldn't meet the no-China parts bar; this round's winners cleared it.