Daily Brief : May 15: Defense and Space Cap Off Infrastructure Sprint

HEADLINE

Anduril's $61 billion valuation and True Anomaly's Space Force contract win signal that private capital and the Pentagon are now racing to compress decade-long defense timelines into two-to-three years.

THE BIG PICTURE

Every major announcement this week, from Anduril's $5 billion Series H to the NRC's new microreactor licensing rule, centers on the same bet: that physical infrastructure, not software alone, is now the deciding factor in national security and commercial competition. The federal government and venture capital are moving in lockstep, with private companies building the factories and the government clearing the regulatory paths. This is not startup theater; it is capital allocation at scale meeting policy at speed.

WHAT HAPPENED

Anduril Industries raised $5 billion on May 13 at a $61 billion valuation, led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. This doubles the company's valuation from $30.5 billion less than a year ago and reflects a doubling of 2025 revenue to $2.2 billion. The funding will support the expansion of Arsenal-1, a 5 million square-foot Ohio manufacturing facility that cost $900 million and is one of the largest industrial plants in the state, as well as a new naval facility at Foss Maritime in Seattle. Anduril has now raised more than $11 billion total and holds the distinction of being the most valuable private defense company in the world, one founded only nine years ago.

True Anomaly, a four-year-old space defense startup, raised $650 million in a Series D on April 28, bringing total capital to $1 billion and valuing the company at $2.2 billion. More significant than the raise itself is True Anomaly's selection as a prime contractor on the U.S. Space Force's Golden Dome Space-Based Interceptor Program, which awarded up to $3.2 billion in contracts across 12 companies, including Anduril and SpaceX. True Anomaly plans to expand from 140,000 square feet to 2 million square feet of manufacturing space over the next four years and grow to more than 500 employees by year-end 2026. CEO Evan Rogers stated that space has become a war-fighting domain and adversaries are building capabilities at unprecedented scale.

The NRC published a proposed rule on May 1 establishing Part 57, the first dedicated licensing pathway for microreactors and small reactors with comparable risk profiles in U.S. history. The agency and industry expect the streamlined framework to save $3.76 billion to $11.84 billion, mainly through reduced exemption requests and faster reviews. This regulatory move arrives precisely as Radiant Nuclear enters the decisive phase: the company received DOE approval in February to proceed with its Kaleidos demonstration reactor at Idaho National Laboratory's DOME facility, where it plans to begin a year-long test this summer. Radiant has also signed contracts with Equinix to deliver 20 Kaleidos microreactors for data center power and a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit and U.S. Air Force for deployment on a military base.

WATCHING

Watch for Radiant's Kaleidos startup announcement this summer; even a single successful test will reset the timeline for commercial microreactor deployment and validate the regulatory pathway. Keep an eye on whether Anduril and True Anomaly can actually achieve the production ramps they have promised, if either company ships at scale, the venture capital flood into defense hardware will intensify.