Shield AI is a defense technology company building AI-powered autonomy for aircraft and unmanned systems. Its core platform Hivemind is an AI pilot that flies UAVs and aircraft without GPS or comms; its flagship product V-BAT is a vertical take-off and landing UAV used by the U.S. military and allied forces, including in Ukraine. Hivemind Enterprise lets OEMs embed Shield AI's autonomy stack into their own platforms.
Founded in 2015 in San Diego by Navy SEAL Brandon Tseng, his brother Ryan Tseng, and Andrew Reiter. The idea came from a SEAL mission in Afghanistan where Brandon's unit took casualties clearing a hostile building with no situational awareness; they set out to build autonomous drones that could fly indoors without GPS, comms, or a pilot. The first product, the Nova quadcopter, was deployed for reconnaissance in the Middle East starting in 2018.