UK’s £32m Investment in Peter Thiel-backed Autonomous Weapons Firm Revealed Amid Deepening Ties to Trump Administration

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has spent at least £32 million on technology from the controversial US autonomous weapons firm Anduril, new Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosures obtained by Byline Times reveal.

The contracts, signed since 2021, include a previously undisclosed £6.7 million deal for Anduril’s ‘Ghost Drones’ – near-silent mini-helicopters designed for surveillance and targeting.

The MOD has previously acknowledged it has “held contracts” with Anduril since at least 2020, but this as-yet-unreported-on spending sheds fresh light on the UK’s growing investment in American AI-driven military systems.

The £32 million figure alo includes previously disclosed contracts such as Project CHARYBDIS, a programme designed to develop uncrewed surveillance technologies for detecting underwater threats. Under this initiative, Anduril is working alongside defence giants BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems.

The MOD has also awarded Anduril a £3.8 million contract, codenamed ‘Talos,’ to develop an AI-assisted base defence system. This network of advanced sensors is designed to detect, track, and classify potential threats with greater speed and accuracy.

The most recently disclosed contract, Project Entrelazar, marks the third phase of the Talos programme and is set to run until 2026. According to FOI disclosures, spending on the project has already reached £3.6 million, with total costs expected to rise to as much as £25.3 million. The MOD, however, refused to confirm or deny whether it holds additional active contracts with Anduril, citing national security concerns.

Anduril’s AI-powered Lattice system, which underpins Project Talos, was previously deployed by the first Trump administration to reinforce sections of the US-Mexico border wall. Its network of 360-degree surveillance towers, capable of detecting and tracking “objects of interest” around the clock, was used to assist US Border Patrol agents in identifying and detaining migrants. The programme continued under the Biden administration.

In the UK, Anduril’s AI-powered products were used by the Home Office, under Rishi Sunak’s government, to track small boat crossings as part of his government’s “Stop the Boats” strategy. 

In December 2024, investigative outlet The Ferret reported that Edinburgh-based investment firm Baillie Gifford was one of a group of investors which brought in £1.2bn for the company, who pledged to use the cash injection to “hyperscale” its manufacturing of “tens of thousands of autonomous weapons systems”. 

---

From Border Walls to Britain’s Defence

Founded in 2017 with backing from Republican donor and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, Anduril has positioned itself as a disruptive force in military technology. Led by libertarian entrepreneur Palmer Luckey – best known for creating the Oculus VR headset – the company secured $1.5 billion in new investment last year, including from Thiel’s Founders Fund, a key entity in Anduril’s origin story.

After selling Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, Luckey attended a retreat on Sonora Island in British Columbia, hosted by the Fund, where he met Trae Stephens, then a Palantir employee. Following the meet, Thiel convinced Stephens to leave Palantir and join Founders Fund, focusing on venture-backed investments targeting government contracts—an effort that would eventually lead to Anduril’s founding in 2017.

Initially, Anduril positioned itself as a provider of low-cost surveillance tools winning contracts from the US Department of Homeland Security, pitching its border-monitoring technology at a time when few venture-backed firms – besides Palantir and Elon Musk’s SpaceX – were major government contractors. With seed funding from Thiel’s network, Luckey, Stephens, and a group of ex-Palantir executives developed Anduril as a new entrant into lucrative public sector work.

Luckey’s departure from Facebook in 2017 came under opaque circumstances, shortly after revelations that he had funded the alt-right group Nimble America, which ran anti-Hillary Clinton campaigns. He denied being alt-right but defended the donation, arguing the group had “fresh ideas” for engaging young voters. Recent reports suggest Zuckerberg and Luckey may now be repairing their relationship as they align themselves with the new Trump administration.

Anduril – like Palantir and other Thiel-backed ventures – takes its name from The Lord of the Rings, referencing Aragorn’s sword, the “flame of the west”. Luckey has described the company’s mission as a battle to “save Western civilisation” through selling advanced weapons technology. In a 2024 interview, he also identified himself as a “radical Zionist,” reflecting Anduril’s tacit support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

Reflecting on the future of autonomous warfare using pilotless aircraft, Luckey has stated that “pilots need to sleep, pilots complain, drones don’t do that”. 

Emily Apple, Campaign Against Arms Trade’s media coordinator, told Byline Times: “These are dangerous people with dangerous ideas, and the MOD has serious questions to answer over its appalling decision to give millions of pounds to this company.” 

As recently reported by The Times, the company’s UK operations have doubled in size over the last 15 months, and UK manager Rich Drake expects it to double again over the next year. The Founders Fund is already in talks to lead a new funding round, worth as much as $2.5 billion, helping to secure a potential $28 billion valuation for Anduril.

The company’s deep ties to the Trump administration and its financial backers have positioned it as a major player in the US defence sector. Alongside funding from Thiel, Anduril has also received investment from Andreessen Horowitz, whose co-founder Marc Andreessen, along with his billionaire contemporaries – Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg – are reportedly helping to shape policy in the White House on technology, business, and national security. 

Vice President JD Vance, another Thiel protégé, also supports Anduril through his investment firm Narya, which was itself funded by Thiel and named after one of the Rings of Power in Tolkien’s mythology. Anduril recently announced a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Ohio -Vance’s home state -but denies any political motivations, claiming the plans predate his election. 

Meanwhile, Palantir’s and Musk’s extensive support of Trump and the republican party over the years has helped secure them unprecedented access to the new administration. Musk is leading up the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE), currently engaged in aggressively gutting government agencies, while Palantir’s stock value has shot up 336% over the past six months, with the company expecting a windfall from Trump’s government overhaul.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp has said that the work of DOGE would be “good for Americans”, and “very good for Palantir”, which generates around two-thirds of its revenue from government contracts. Recent reports claim that at least three individuals associated with Palantir or Peter Thiel were involved in the online recruitment efforts for DOGE.

Anduril also appears poised to benefit from this political alignment. Following Trump’s electoral victory, director Stephens met with the then-President-elect to discuss shaking up the US military, a move that aligns with a broader push by tech firms to carve out a larger share of the $850 billion defence budget.

The company is already poised to take over Microsoft’s $22 billion US Army headset program, and, according to the Financial Times, Anduril and Palantir are also now part of a consortium— along with SpaceX, OpenAI, autonomous shipbuilder Saronic, and AI firm Scale AI—aiming to challenge traditional defence contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing and to “disrupt” the industry. 

Rasha Abdul-Rahim, an independent expert on technology and human rights, also warned:

“Trump’s administration is on a radical deregulation drive, particularly in technology and defence, and the UK is following suit. Anduril’s owners and investors represent an unholy alliance between alt-right politics and military business. We need urgent global regulation to stop the development of autonomous systems that automate killing.”

Anduril and the Ministry of Defence were approached for comment. Palantir declined to comment.