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Forbes Daily Briefing

How A Grisly Injury Threw A $5 Billion Drone Startup Off Course

Forbes Daily Briefing

Forbes

Careers, Business, News, Entrepreneurship

4.612 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shield AI executives overlooked its V-BAT drone’s safety hazards, Forbes found. Now with sales falling short and the CEO stepping down, the company is trying to win back military customers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Thursday, May 15th.

0:04.9

Today on Forbes, how a grisly injury threw a $5 billion drone startup off course.

0:12.5

In April of 2024, a handful of U.S. Navy officers gathered outside of Fort Stockton, Texas,

0:19.1

to watch Defense Tech Unicorn Shield AI demo its latest

0:23.5

drone. Called the V-BAT, the autonomous aircraft was designed to launch and land vertically

0:29.3

without a runway and could be piloted through war zones where GPS wasn't reliable.

0:35.6

Shield had yet to announce a major contract for it, and the U.S. Navy's support

0:39.2

was crucial to the company's hopes to sell thousands of the $1 million drones to the Pentagon.

0:45.4

But as the 12-foot-long V-bat came in for a landing, things went sideways. Unlike most drones,

0:52.5

which don't require physical intervention, Shields' operators needed to assist

0:56.7

the drone in landing vertically, like a SpaceX rocket. Instead, it dropped to the ground and tipped

1:02.5

over, resulting in a grisly incident. When a U.S. service member approached the drone, his fingers

1:08.5

were caught in the spinning blades and partially severed.

1:13.2

Shield AI has emerged as a lead contender in the increasingly crowded race against

1:17.6

competitors like Anderil and Aeroveyermint to outfit the U.S. military with killer drones.

1:24.1

The $5 billion valued startup, founded in 2015 by brothers Ryan and Brandon Seng,

1:30.6

sells a suite of hardware and products, including autonomous piloting software that has been

1:35.7

used to fly fighter jets. In March, it raised $240 million in a funding round, led by Korean

1:42.6

conglomerate Hanwa, and American defense

1:45.3

contractor L3 Harris, with the goal of preparing the military for the future of autonomous

1:50.6

warfare.

1:52.1

The V-BAT, though, has been the company's primary revenue driver.

...

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