Company profile
Shield AI
Shield AI develops autonomous aircraft and AI pilots for defense missions. Its Hivemind autonomy stack and V-BAT aircraft support ISR, targeting and contes...
Facts
- Segment
- DEFENSE
- Country
- US
- Headquarters
- San Diego
- Founded
- 2015
- Website
- https://shield.ai
About Shield AI
Shield AI develops autonomous aircraft, AI-pilot software and vision systems for defence operations in contested or communications-degraded environments. Hivemind is its platform-agnostic autonomy stack: Hivemind Solutions supplies turnkey mission integrations, Hivemind Enterprise gives customers tools to develop and deploy their own AI pilots, and Hivemind Vision supports computer-vision applications.
V-BAT is Shield AI's vertical-take-off aircraft for ISR and targeting, while X-BAT is a jet-powered collaborative combat aircraft programme using the same autonomy layer. The June 2026 acquisition of Aechelon Technology added high-fidelity simulation, synthetic environments and sensor modelling for training and autonomy development. V-BAT is already procured and operating internationally, while X-BAT and several third-party Hivemind integrations remain programme-specific development efforts.
Market context
DEPLOYMENT
Summary
Type: Defense autonomy
Core: Hivemind / V-BAT
Function: Gather intelligence
Audience: Armed forces
Products
- Hivemind Enterprise — software
- V-BAT — uav
- X-BAT — uav
Research, Articles and recent verified events
- Shield AI expands Taiwan Hivemind contract after three-UAV swarm exercise — 2026-08-06
- Shield AI and Thunder Tiger complete Hivemind multi-USV autonomy demonstration in Taiwan — 2026-07-29
- Poland signs $16 million contract for Shield AI MQ-35 V-BAT UAVs — 2026-06-23
- Shield AI completes acquisition of Aechelon Technology — 2026-06-22
- Shield AI wins USAF production contract for CCA mission autonomy — 2026-06-17
- Full-mission Hornet exercise validates Hivemind counter-UAS autonomy — 2026-06-15
- Shield AI selected to integrate Hivemind autonomy on LUCAS combat drone program — 2026-05-19
- Shield AI to acquire Aechelon and raise $2 billion at a $12.7 billion valuation — 2026-03-26