Shield AI, the Private Company in Defiance's JEDI ETF, Agrees to Acquire Echodyne for Up to $5.3 Billion and Raises New Capital at a $28.8 Billion Valuation
Key Highlights
- ➤Shield AI agreed to acquire Echodyne for up to $5.3 billion
- ➤Shield AI is raising $2.5 billion to fund the Echodyne acquisition
- ➤Series H values Shield AI at $28.8 billion post-money
- ➤Shield AI's valuation more than doubled from $12.7 billion in March 2026
- ➤JEDI's Shield AI SPV represented approximately 7.0% of net assets
Expert Statements
Gary Steele, CEO of Shield AI
“the deal accelerates the company’s multi-mission capabilities, opens access to a rapidly expanding counter-drone industry, and diversifies its revenue”
Gary Steele, CEO of Shield AI
“Echodyne as Shield AI’s first step into dual-use hardware that can also be sold to customers outside the military, such as public safety and aviation”
Sylvia Jablonski, Chief Investment Officer of Defiance ETFs
“This is exactly why we built JEDI the way we did”
Sylvia Jablonski, Chief Investment Officer of Defiance ETFs
“Drones and autonomy are still early in the arc of modern warfare, and the companies defining the category are young, private, and moving quickly. Shield AI just agreed to its largest acquisition and is raising capital at more than double the valuation it carried in March, and it is still a private company. JEDI shareholders have had exposure to it through a single ticker since August.”
Sylvia Jablonski, Chief Investment Officer of Defiance ETFs
“The listed names in the Fund reprice every day on elections, geopolitics, and budget headlines. The private companies mark their progress in financings and deals like this one. Holding both is the point. We said in August that a company not having listed should not be the reason our shareholders miss it. Three months later, that is the whole story.”
MIAMI, Nov. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Defiance Drone & Modern Warfare ETF (NYSE: JEDI) (link) has held exposure to Shield AI, a privately held defense autonomy company, since August 2026, when it became the first U.S.-listed ETF to offer investors exposure to the company.* On November 5, Shield AI announced that it has agreed to acquire Echodyne Corp., a maker of compact radar systems for counter-drone and security applications, in a transaction valued at up to $5.3 billion, and that it is raising $2.5 billion in connection with the deal, including $1 billion of Series H equity at a $28.8 billion post-money valuation. That valuation is more than double the $12.7 billion post-money valuation Shield AI announced in March 2026.
Drone and modern warfare technology is still early. Autonomy software, uncrewed aircraft, counter-drone sensing, and AI-enabled targeting are being built, tested, and procured now, and the programs that will define the category will take years to play out. Many of the companies at the front of that build-out are young and privately held, and they are scaling in the private market: raising capital, winning production contracts, and combining with one another to add capabilities and customers that can change a company's economics in a single transaction. Shield AI's 2026 is an example. In March it announced a $2 billion raise at a $12.7 billion valuation and the Aechelon acquisition; in June the U.S. Air Force awarded it a production contract to implement Hivemind as mission autonomy software for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program; and on November 5 it announced its largest acquisition and a $28.8 billion valuation. It remains a private company.
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