The private-market rerating of defense technology firms has moved from niche signal to macro-level trend. A handful of late-stage, mission-driven companies now sit deep in unicorn territory and are being modeled by investors as future public market entrants. The fundamental drivers are familiar: large addressable defense budgets, urgent operational demand for autonomy and counter-UAS tools, and a willingness among strategic investors and primes to fund scale.

Who the market calls unicorns and what they are doing

  • Anduril Industries: In mid-2025 Anduril completed a jumbo late-stage raise, taking in roughly $2.5 billion and repricing the company to about $30.5 billion. Management has publicly framed the business to behave like a public company and said an IPO is an eventual certainty, though no timeline has been set. Those funds are being used to expand manufacturing and industrial capacity as Anduril pushes into large-scale production.

  • Shield AI: A major strategic and late-stage financing in early 2025 pushed Shield AI into the multibillion-dollar club, with press reports placing the post-money valuation above $5 billion. The company has emphasized scalable autonomy software for aircraft and drones and has attracted strategic investors among primes.

  • Saronic Technologies: Saronic’s large Series C in early 2025 valued the company in the low single-digit billions and funded ambitions for a purpose-built shipyard to mass produce autonomous surface vessels. That round underlined investor appetite for maritime autonomy as a distinct category.

  • Epirus and peers: Directed-energy and counter-UAS specialist Epirus closed a $250 million Series D in 2025 and sits comfortably above the $1 billion mark by most reporting. Other specialist firms including advanced drone suppliers have similarly reached unicorn valuations in recent quarters.

Why an IPO makes strategic sense now

Late-stage rounds at elevated valuations serve three commercial functions that point toward eventual public listings. First, they provide capital to build manufacturing scale and supply chains for systems that must be produced at volume to win prime contracts. Second, they reset secondary-market liquidity and set a visible public reference price for strategic buyers and potential public investors. Third, historical patterns show that once a defense company reaches multibillion-dollar scale and a consistent revenue run rate, the economics of winning larger, multi-year programs favor the transparency and balance-sheet strengths that public markets deliver. Anduril’s recent investments into manufacturing and solid rocket motor production are a textbook example of capital redeployed to industrial scale.

Constraints and market friction

There are practical and structural reasons many defense unicorns will not rush to market. A large share of revenue can be contractually tied to classified or sensitive work, creating disclosure friction with the public markets. A second constraint is investor preference: many late-stage backers have signaled they will remain private longer, preferring direct deals, strategic exits, or carve-outs that maximize control. Finally, macro windows matter. Public-market reception for asset classes tied to defense procurement can be episodic, and companies often wait for a clear path to sustained revenue growth and demonstrable margin improvement before filing. These are not abstract risks; they are why several well-capitalized defense firms continue to choose private scaling over an immediate IPO.

Implications for investors, primes, and policy

For venture and crossover investors the near-term playbook is twofold: back scaleups that can show recurring, non-episodic revenues and preserve optionality on exit, and partner with primes that can accelerate market access. For the large primes, the rise of well-funded startups changes M&A calculus and competition for talent. For policymakers and regulators the question will be how to balance transparency demanded by public markets with national security constraints tied to dual-use technologies. The market is already responding by creating hybrid capital structures, strategic partnerships, and pre-IPO anchor deals that blur the lines between private financing and traditional defense contracting.

Short checklist for watching the IPO pipeline

  • Scale and repeatability: Are product lines producing durable, multi-customer revenue? (Anduril and Shield AI are firmer on this metric than many peers.)
  • Manufacturing posture: Is the company deploying capital into factories or shipyards versus pure R&D? (Companies that do are IPO-readier.)
  • Contract mix: How much revenue is sensitive or classified? Higher sensitivity increases disclosure friction. (This is an analytical signal rather than a single public datum.)
  • Strategic investors and primes: Presence of prime contractors or defense funds as investors tends to shorten the path to program wins but can complicate exit timing.

Bottom line

By mid-2025 the defense unicorn cohort has matured enough that IPOs are a credible exit path rather than a theoretical one. Anduril is the highest-profile bet to watch because of its scale, recent $2.5 billion round, and explicit management statements about going public. Several other companies are building the revenue, strategic partnerships, and industrial footprint that underwrite a public listing. That said, expect a staggered cadence: some will choose the public markets once revenue visibility and margins meet investor expectations, and others will prefer private capital or strategic exits until market windows align with defense-specific disclosure constraints. The public markets will get their entries, but not all at once.