AN-021 Company lists · list
American Drone Companies
American drone companies in the HardwareMap index: US defense, delivery, inventory and drone compute makers, with HQ, stage, disclosed raise and status.
by the HardwareMap editors3 min read
From the HardwareMap index, REV 26.09, refreshed 3 Oct 2026
Contents
American drone companies in the HardwareMap index number 10 as of REV 26.09, from FPV makers in Torrance to delivery networks in South San Francisco. This page lists each with HQ hub, stage, disclosed capital raised and status. Sorting rule: what the company sells and to whom, then disclosed funding. For the global list, see the parent page, drone companies.
The table is live, drawn from the same records as each company datasheet. US companies are 10 of the 18 drone companies in the full index.
How we choose American drone companies
A company qualifies when it is headquartered in the United States and builds drone hardware, counter-drone hardware or flight compute for drones. Subsidiaries of large primes and resellers are left out. Inside the list, we group by buyer:
- Defense makers. Airframes and autonomy sold to the US military and allies.
- Counter-drone systems. Radar and directed energy that detect or disable drones.
- Commercial makers and operators. Delivery, inventory and mapping.
- Components. Flight computers sold to other builders.
Disclosed capital raised orders the names inside each group. Where a figure is not public, the table says undisclosed.
US defense drone companies
Capabilities are described here as the companies report them publicly.
Anduril Industries (Costa Mesa) sells autonomous systems tied together by Lattice software, including drones and counter-drone systems. In January 2025 it picked Columbus, Ohio, for Arsenal-1, a large manufacturing plant for its products (Anduril).
Shield AI (San Diego) builds AI pilot software and the V-BAT, a vertical takeoff drone. Skydio (San Mateo) builds autonomous drones and docks for defense and public safety, led by the X10 (Skydio X10). Neros (Torrance) mass-produces the Archer FPV drone with a supply chain free of Chinese parts.
Counter-drone work sits next to them. Epirus (Torrance) builds Leonidas, a high-power microwave system for disabling groups of drones. CHAOS Industries (Los Angeles) builds Vanquish, a networked radar for detecting drones and missiles at long range. The full defense list is in defense tech startups.
US commercial drone companies
Zipline (South San Francisco) builds autonomous delivery drones for packages and medical supplies and runs the network itself; its current system is Platform 2 (Zipline). It is the most funded commercial drone company in the index.
Corvus Robotics (Mountain View) flies Corvus One drones inside warehouses to scan inventory. Exyn Technologies (Philadelphia) builds autonomous aerial robots that map mines and other GPS-denied sites, and listed its shares on Nasdaq in May 2026 (Exyn). That makes it the only public US company in this table; listed drone stocks are covered in publicly traded drone companies.
ModalAI (San Diego) sells VOXL flight computers and autopilots to other drone and robot builders. Its funding is undisclosed.
Reading the funding column
The funding spread in this table is wide. Anduril's disclosed raise is roughly five hundred times Corvus Robotics'. That gap says more about the buyer than the technology. A warehouse inventory drone sells to a logistics operator with a payback calculation in months. A defense drone sells into multi-year programs, where the maker carries test, certification and production costs before the first large order.
Three practical notes for anyone using the column:
- Disclosed only. Debt, government contracts and undisclosed rounds are not in the figure. ModalAI shows undisclosed for that reason.
- Not valuation. The index never infers a valuation from a raise.
- Stage is derived. The stage column comes from the latest disclosed round. Our funding stage breakdown shows how drones compare with the rest of hardware.
What sets American drone companies apart
- Procurement drives the market. US government buyers favor drones built without Chinese components, and the Defense Department keeps a Blue UAS list of platforms cleared for military use. The program began at the Defense Innovation Unit, which said in July 2025 that it was moving list management to DCMA (DIU).
- California concentration. Nine of the ten companies are in Southern California or the Bay Area. See hardware startups by hub for how that compares with other categories.
- Software as the moat. Anduril, Shield AI and Skydio each describe autonomy software as the core product, with airframes as the delivery vehicle.
The next REV adds new entries and marks status changes here first.
Continue with Military and Defense Drone Companies.
Frequently asked questions
How many American drone companies are in the index?
The HardwareMap index lists 10 American drone companies as of REV 26.09. Four build drones mainly for defense, two build counter-drone systems, three build commercial drones for delivery, inventory or mapping, and one builds flight computers for other drone makers. Nine of the ten are in California. The table on this page updates when the index does.
Which US drone company has raised the most?
Anduril Industries, based in Costa Mesa, California, has the largest disclosed raise in the index at $11.4 billion. Shield AI follows at $3.4 billion and Zipline at about $2.3 billion. Anduril sells far more than drones: its Lattice software links sensors, aircraft and counter-drone systems. Disclosed funding is not revenue, and none of these companies publish full unit counts.
Where are American drone companies based?
Southern California dominates. Anduril is in Costa Mesa, Epirus and Neros in Torrance, CHAOS Industries in Los Angeles, and Shield AI and ModalAI in San Diego. The Bay Area holds Skydio in San Mateo, Zipline in South San Francisco and Corvus Robotics in Mountain View. Exyn Technologies in Philadelphia is the only listed company outside California.
What does NDAA compliant mean for a drone?
It refers to US defense law that restricts the Defense Department from buying drones and certain components made in China and some other countries. The Defense Department keeps a Blue UAS list of drones cleared for government use. Buyers should check the current list and their own procurement rules. This page does not certify any product as compliant.
Are there American drone companies selling to consumers?
Not in this index today. The US companies listed sell to militaries, police and fire departments, retailers, warehouses, mines and other drone makers. Consumer camera drones are a separate, mature market led by large private companies, which the index does not cover because it catalogues startups. If you build an American consumer drone, submit it for review.
HardwareMap tracks every American drone company that meets the bar. Open any company above for its datasheet, or browse the defense category.
The index
All 219 startups, filterable by category, hub, stage and funding.