Episode summary
This Ex-Navy SEAL Built a $5B AI Drone Company for Modern Warfare | WSJ's Bold Names
The Journal
· · 26 min · Hosts: Tim Higgins · Guests: Brandon Tseng
Summary
Brandon Tseng says Shield AI was built around a simple conviction he formed after leaving the Navy SEALs: AI and autonomy would become central to warfare. He describes the company’s first product, the Nova quadcopter, as a small drone used to clear buildings, map interiors, and spot threats before special operations forces or infantry entered. Tseng argues that the core value of these systems is reducing risk while giving warfighters better intelligence.
He says the business struggled to win early support in Silicon Valley and the Pentagon, but that the market has changed dramatically. Tseng points to Ukraine as proof that autonomous systems matter more when GPS and communications are jammed, and says Shield AI’s Hivemind software lets drones localize themselves without relying on those signals. He also says the company’s VBAT drones have been used by the U.S. Coast Guard and other customers for intelligence, border security, and maritime awareness.
Tseng’s larger argument is that future militaries will use a hybrid force: a smaller number of expensive platforms like aircraft carriers and fighter jets, plus huge numbers of cheaper autonomous systems. He compares drones to mobile phones, arguing they will become ubiquitous and help the U.S. maintain deterrence and battlefield advantage.
Key takeaways
- Brandon Tseng says Shield AI’s edge is Hivemind, which lets drones navigate and fight when GPS and communications are jammed.
- Tseng says the company’s VBAT drones are already operating in Ukraine and have helped target Russian assets hundreds of kilometers from the front line.
- He says Shield AI raised investor skepticism early on, but defense-tech enthusiasm has shifted from “30 for 30 nos” to strong demand.
- Tseng argues the U.S. should keep elite platforms but add massed drones, comparing them to mobile phones becoming ubiquitous.
- He says the Pentagon is increasingly asking why it is still working with legacy primes instead of companies built around software and autonomy.
Notable quotes
“I would actually say it was like a small pizza. Um”
“we started by putting an AI pilot on a quadcopter to go inside buildings, which was a a problem that I was very familiar with”
“We're using the sensors on board these drones to build a map of the world and we localize ourselves off of the map that we have built”
“we build them in Dallas, Texas. uh in a uh a 200,000 square foot facility called the uh the Batcave”
“I think it's, you know, it's probably eventually at one day in the world, we might go down to less than 10 uh less than 11 uh carrier strike groups”
How the episode opens
The SEAL teams uh is also a life of suffering and pain uh and torment. I would absolutely claim like that helped me as an entrepreneur having gone through the suffering, gone through the pain. So, I'm I'm used to it at this stage in the game.
Oh, that that seems optimistic.
This week on Bold Names, we're talking to Brandon Sang. He's the co-founder of Shield AI. The startup is making both hardware and software for the next generation of warfare, one that puts autonomous drones on the front lines.
That's next. Brandon, thank you so much for joining us today here on Bold Names. I'm excited.
There's a lot going on with AI and defense tech, but first I want to get into your founding story a little bit. Shield AI founded in 2015. Before that, you were a Navy Seal, deployed twice in Afghanistan, and I'm just curious, how did that experience shape your understanding of what technology could do for warfare?
Yeah. No, first Tim, thanks for having me. Uh, really excited to chat today.
Um, certainly my deployments in the Navy informed my perspective, uh, you know, which I've I've now come to appreciate having done SHIELD for almost 11 years now. Um, and and look, I'll I'll be honest. When I was in the SEAL teams, when I was operating, I wasn't really thinking about, hey, how could I do this mission better?
Hey, what if I could do this? Uh, I had great I thought at the time I had great technology. I had great assets.
Uh, had satellite imagery. I had Apache helicopters, uh, Predator drones, F-18s, all at my disposal to to accomplish my missions. Uh, we had Palunteer.
And so when I was actually operating day in day out, um was very happy uh with the tech stack that I was using.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai drones
- gps jamming
- ukraine defense
- autonomous swarms
- u.s. military strategy
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Shield AI
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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