Anduril Industries, a U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) defense company, has unveiled its vision to expand cooperation with Korean defense firms while developing Korea into a key hub of its global supply chain.
"Given Korea's defense technology and manufacturing expertise, investing in Korea is a natural choice," Brian Schimpf, co-founder and CEO of Anduril, said at a press conference held Wednesday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Founded in 2017 by engineers primarily from AI data analytics firm Palantir, Anduril is a global defense company working with the defense ministries of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, with a current corporate valuation of $30.5 billion (about 40 trillion won). The company established its Seoul office last year and has been broadening partnerships with Korean firms including HD Hyundai, Korean Air (003490.KS), LIG Defense & Aerospace and Hyundai Rotem (064350.KS) on AI-based weapons systems upgrades.
"We are working with leaders in each field who have deep expertise," Schimpf said. "Beyond business with the Korean government, we can comprehensively expand this to enter other global markets together," he added, expressing strong confidence in Korean companies. He particularly praised Korean defense firms' "fast delivery," saying "delivering a prototype within a year is unprecedented." Korean Air's unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with Anduril's Lattice successfully carried out its mission without remote control at a Korean test site on Oct. 30. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (329180.KS), which signed a contract in November last year to design and build an autonomous unmanned surface vessel, is also reportedly accelerating the construction of a prototype vessel, targeting launch in October this year followed by sea trials off the U.S. coast. "We intend to deploy our own resources to drive the business and expand our engineering and program management expertise," Schimpf said. "Our goal is to build a supply chain here as well and ultimately integrate it into the global supply chain."
Anduril also left open the possibility of cooperating on the Korea-U.S. shipbuilding industry cooperation project "MASGA" (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again). "If there is a role for Anduril to play as a U.S. partner in the MASGA fund, we would naturally consider it," Schimpf said. "We are open-minded about how to build strong alliances with our partners."
