Analysis
The Information reported Wednesday that Anduril Industries is in talks for an employee share sale that would value the defense-technology company at $90 billion, according to The Information. The outlet's reporting is paywalled beyond the headline, so the structure of the sale -- who is buying, and how many shares are involved -- has not been detailed publicly. Pulse has covered Anduril's rapid valuation climb extensively this year.
## A separate track from the reported $100 billion primary talks The tender comes as Anduril has separately been reported to be discussing a new primary funding round at roughly $100 billion, a figure that would mark another sharp step up from its last confirmed round. Anduril is reported to have closed a $5 billion Series H in May 2026 co-led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz at a $61 billion valuation -- meaning the company has had multiple valuation marks floated within roughly five months: the reported $61 billion in May, this $90 billion tender, and talks near $100 billion for fresh primary capital.
An employee tender pricing below where a primary round is being discussed isn't unusual -- insiders and existing investors often negotiate tender pricing at a discount to where a new lead investor might set the next round, since a tender doesn't bring the signaling value or new capital a primary round does. But the gap is worth watching: a $10 billion spread between the two tracks suggests buyers are being disciplined even as they keep marking the company up.
“But the gap is worth watching: a $10 billion spread between the two tracks suggests buyers are being disciplined even as they keep marking the company up.”
Anduril, founded in 2017 and built around autonomous weapons systems, drones and its Lattice software for battlefield data, competes for Pentagon contracts against both venture-backed rivals like Shield AI and Saronic and legacy primes like Lockheed Martin and RTX. Palantir is the closest comparison on valuation trajectory -- a software-and-defense company that went from startup to public-market darling largely on the same thesis that Anduril is now being priced against: that software-defined defense systems can out-compete traditional hardware-heavy contractors on speed and cost.
What the valuation run misses is that none of this -- the May Series H, the reported tender, or the primary talks -- has translated into a public listing or an independent audited valuation. Every mark so far has come from private negotiations between Anduril and investors who already have a stake in seeing the number go up. That doesn't make the numbers wrong, but it does mean they haven't been tested by a market that could push back.
The next real test is whether the $90 billion tender closes at that price or gets repriced once buyers see terms for a new primary round -- and whether that primary round, if it happens, lands at $90 billion, the reported $100 billion, or somewhere in between.
