Neros raises $250M at a $2.5B valuation to field AI-guided defense drones this year

Neros Technologies announced a $250 million Series C on 14 August 2026 at a $2.5 billion valuation, co-led by Sequoia Capital and the American Strategic Technology Fund. The El Segundo company builds Archer AI, a first-person-view platform with terminal guidance and GPS-denied positioning, and Bandit, a counter-drone interceptor aimed at Class 2 and 3 threats; both support multi-asset swarm control. Neros says it will deploy both in combat theatres by the end of 2026 and is targeting 1 million drones a year by 2028.

What it means Autonomy money is moving toward hardware that has to work without GPS — the same constraint that shapes any robot expected to operate where the network is not.