Shield AI to buy radar maker Echodyne for $5.3B, hits $28.8B

Shield AI is paying up to $5.3 billion for counter-drone radar maker Echodyne and raising $2.5 billion in fresh capital at a $28.8 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported, more than doubling where the defense tech company was marked in March.

Of the headline price, $4.8 billion is paid and issued at closing, with up to another $500 million contingent on Echodyne meeting agreed performance targets, according to a Shield statement. The $2.5 billion raise breaks into a $1 billion Series H at the new $28.8 billion post-money mark, a $1 billion structured equity investment from funds managed by Blackstone, and $500 million in debt financing led by JPMorgan Chase.

The acquisition pulls software-defined radar into Shield's Mission Systems business for counter-unmanned aircraft work that, in the company's phrasing, is meant to "detect, track and defeat drones." Echodyne, backed by Bill Gates and based in the Seattle area, built the business on metamaterials-based radar technology.

"The acquisition of Echodyne dramatically accelerates our efforts to meet growing customer demand for multi-mission capabilities, provides increased access to a rapidly expanding counter-drone industry," Shield CEO Gary Steele said in the statement. Echodyne CEO Eben Frankenberg said "hundreds of customers rely on our radars to detect and track drones, protect people and infrastructure, secure borders, and ensure safe airspace operations."

The deal is expected to close in early 2027, pending regulatory approvals. It lands as the fifty-fourth military AI story we've logged in the past 90 days, a stretch that last week included OpenAI hiring former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll for national-security work.