In Brief Posted: 11:05 AM PDT · March 26, 2026 Image Credits: Shield AI. Photo by Rod Lamkey, Jr. Autonomous military aircraft maker Shield AI has raised $1.5 billion in Series G funding at a $12.7 billion post-money valuation, the company announced on Tuesday. The deal was led by PE firm Advent (which has a $1 billion budget to invest in defense tech, it says ) and a JPMorganChase investment group. In addition, Shield AI sold $500 million of preferred shares to funds managed by Blackstone (and also lined up a $250 million loan that it can draw on later). This capital is helping Shield acquire Aechelon Technology, maker of flight simulation tech used to train U.S. military pilots. Terms of that acquisition were not disclosed. The new round comes after Shield raised $240 million at a $5.3 billion valuation in March 2025. That means its value leaped 140% in one year. There’s a good reason for that: Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software was selected in February as a provider for the U.S.…