G.L.A INVE$T RE$EARCH
THE INFINITE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER — PRE-IPO MONTHLY
ANDURIL WINS AGAIN!!!!!!!
October 2026 Edition
The Big Picture
Defense tech leaders are gaining sway in Washington in President Donald Trump's military reindustrialization push
CNBC • Samantha Subin
Two Days, Two Mega-Awards, Up to $4.7 Billion In New Contract Value.
Anduril just reminded the world why it sits at #1 on our Private Market Top 15. The Navy handed it a submarine deal worth up to $2.9 billion on Tuesday, a day after the Army handed it a command-and-control deal worth up to $1.8 billion. This isn't a startup chasing pilot programs anymore. This is a prime contractor in the making.
Below: the full Anduril breakdown, a refresh of all 15 names on our list, and the pre-IPO news that matters most right now.
Anduril Continues to Scale Next-Generation Command and Control Across the Army | Anduril
Anduril Industries builds advanced autonomous systems and defense technology to protect US and allied forces. Creating the future of national security through AI, robotics, and cutting-edge engineering.
Anduril
Cover Story: Anduril Goes Underwater
The Verified News
1. Navy Submarine Deal: up to $2.9 billion (Oct. 6)
- Anduril won a U.S. Navy contract worth up to $2.9 billion to boost submarine production (CNBC).
- Alongside the deal, Anduril is putting $3.7 billion of its own money into a new shipyard at Sparrows Point, outside Baltimore (CNBC). Navy dollars plus Anduril's private money comes to about $6.6 billion in total (Reuters via Investing.com).
- The site is planned at 2 million square feet and will build parts for the Virginia-class submarine. Operations start in 2030, with about 3,100 jobs (CNBC).
- President Chris Brose says the long-term goal is to grow from parts supplier into building "very large sections of the ship" (CNBC).
2. Army NGC2 Deal: up to $1.8 billion (Oct. 5–6)
- The Army gave Anduril a five-year contract worth up to $1.8 billion to roll out the Next-Generation Command and Control (NGC2) data layer, starting with I Corps in the Pacific. The base award is $162.8 million(GovConWire).
- Lattice, Anduril's software platform, powers the system. In testing, NGC2 cut artillery fire times by 90% compared with older systems (GovConWire).
- The Army plans to deploy it across all 11 divisions over five years (GovConWire).
3. The Rest of a Huge Month (Anduril News)
- EagleEye mixed-reality soldier helmet unveiled, with a $159M Army prototyping contract.
- Picked as one of five companies to build PrSM Increment 4 long-range missile prototypes (600+ mile range).
- Palmer Luckey named co-lead of the Pentagon's Project Meridian, alongside Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich.
- New Voyager Technologies partnership on propulsion and missile-defense parts.
- Another 134,000 sq ft leased in Tustin, CA as production ramps up.
4. Valuation Check
- Anduril raised $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation in May, double where it was a year earlier. Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz led the round (CNBC).
The G.L.A Take (Opinion)-not investment advice
Software (Lattice) plus hardware (missiles, helmets, now submarine parts) plus factories (Arsenal, Sparrows Point) adds up to the closest thing to a next-generation Lockheed that the private market has ever produced. The NGC2 win is the sleeper headline: it makes Lattice the backbone of Army operations, the kind of sticky, high-margin software that compounds for decades. Anduril stays our #1.
The G.L.A Private Market Top 15 — October Update
#1. ANDURIL — Defense Tech Prime
What they do: AI-powered defense hardware and the Lattice software that ties it all together. Latest: Up to $2.9B from the Navy for submarines plus up to $1.8B from the Army for NGC2 in back-to-back days (CNBC,GovConWire). Full breakdown above.
#2. ANTHROPIC — Frontier AI (Claude)
What they do: Builds the Claude family of AI models for businesses, developers, and consumers. Latest: The IPO is coming. The prospectus shows 2025 revenue of about $4.6 billion, roughly 12x the year before, along with $518 billion in compute commitments over the next decade (InvestmentNews). Reports point to a raise of about $100 billion at a $2 trillion valuation, with a roadshow possibly the week of Nov. 9 (Zacks). One risk to watch: an appeals court upheld the Pentagon's "supply chain risk" label for Anthropic on Sept. 25 (CNBC).
#3. DATABRICKS — The Enterprise AI Data Platform
What they do: One platform for company data, analytics, governance, and AI. Latest: Closed $5 billion at a $190 billion valuation. Revenue run-rate tops $7 billion and is growing 80%+ a year (Databricks). CEO Ali Ghodsi ruled out a 2026 IPO, so 2027 is the earliest window (Morningstar).
#4. STRIPE — The Blue Chip of Fintech
What they do: Payments, billing, and money-movement software for internet businesses. Latest: Valued at $159 billion in its February tender offer (CNBC). The Stripe–Advent group walked away from its PayPal bid in late August (Reuters). Now Stripe is going on offense in crypto, aiming to run stablecoin card programs in 100+ countries by year-end (Northeast Times), and it is powering AI-agent shopping through Constructor's Agentic Checkout (Finovate).
#5. NEURALINK — Brain-Computer Interfaces
What they do: Implantable brain chips that help paralyzed patients control devices with their thoughts. Latest: Patients have logged 50,000+ hours of brain data. Neuralink used it to train AI decoders that keep working for weeks without recalibration, setting an 11.32 bits-per-second record (Neuralink). It also turned brain signals into voice for an ALS patient (RBC-Ukraine). Secondary-market valuations have reached as high as $42 billion (Business Insider).
#6. SARONIC — Autonomous Warships
What they do: Builds autonomous surface vessels and the shipyards to produce them at scale. Latest: Won a Navy production contract for 10 Marauder 180-ft autonomous ships, about $400 million in total, after 140+ test scenarios without a failure (Tectonic). Broke ground on Port Alpha, its next-generation shipyard, on Sept. 30 (PR Newswire). Last private round: $1.75B at $9.25B (CNBC).
#7. CRUSOE — The AI Factory Company
What they do: Vertically integrated AI data centers, from power generation to GPU cloud. Latest: Raised $3.9B at a $30.9B valuation. Reports also point to a $13B, five-year cloud deal with Jane Street and early IPO talks with Goldman and Morgan Stanley (TechCrunch). It is also developing a new campus in Armstrong County, Texas (Crusoe).
#8. EREBOR — The Bank for the Innovation Economy
What they do: A national bank for AI, crypto, and defense companies, founded by Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale. Latest: Deposits have passed $7 billion since its February launch (Financial Times). It was in talks to raise $1.5B at a $9.5B valuation (CoinDesk).
#9. KRAKEN — Crypto's Financial Super-App
What they do: Crypto exchange (parent: Payward) that is expanding into futures, tokenized stocks, and payments infrastructure. Latest: Payward is profitable, posting $508M in Q2 adjusted revenue (+17% YoY), and Nasdaq is investing $100M(CoinDesk). BNY is in talks on an infrastructure partnership (Cryptonews). The IPO has been pushed to Q2 2027 at the earliest (CoinDesk).
#10. PERPLEXITY — The AI Answer Engine
What they do: AI search and agents that research the web and return cited answers. Latest: Nvidia is reportedly in talks to invest at a $30B+ valuation, with ARR above $750M (Reuters, Free Press Journal). New launches include Automations in Computer and an American Express partnership for small businesses (Perplexity).
#11. APPTRONIK — Humanoid Robots
What they do: Builds Apollo, a humanoid robot for factories and logistics. Latest: Closed a $935M+ Series A with Google, Mercedes-Benz, John Deere, and QIA among the backers (Apptronik), at a $5B valuation (CNBC). Apollo 2 fleets are training at "Robot Park" sites (Apptronik), and the Mercedes pilots in Berlin and Hungary are moving forward (ZeroGantry).
#12. PROMETHEUS — Physical / Industrial AI
What they do: Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj's AI company, building AI for engineering and manufacturing (computers, cars, spacecraft). Latest: Raised $12B at a $41B valuation (Axios). Worth watching: co-founders Anima Anandkumar and Benedikt Jenik have left to launch Accelerated Understanding (Ground News).
#13. LIGHTMATTER — Photonic AI Interconnect
What they do: Light-based chip connections that ease the bandwidth and power limits in AI data centers. Latest: Joined the Open CPX MSA industry group and launched the first bidirectional CPX optical engine, which cuts the fiber needed in AI clusters by half (PR Newswire). Earlier in the year it hit a record 1.6 Tbps per fiber with Qualcomm (Business Wire).
#14. SHIELD AI — The AI Pilot
What they do: Hivemind autonomy software and the X-BAT AI-piloted fighter jet. Latest: Picked Kansas and Washington as X-BAT's flight-test and production homes (PR Newswire), and signed an X-BAT letter of intent with Poland's PGZ (Shield AI). Valued at $12.7B, with $540M+ in projected 2026 revenue (Fortune).
#15. THE BORING COMPANY — Underground Transit
What they do: Elon Musk's tunneling company, best known for the Vegas Loop. Latest: Raised $3B at a $23B valuation , led by the UAE ( TechCrunch ). The Vegas Loop now has 123 approved stations , and the Paradise Road expansion is set to open before the November F1 race ( Las Vegas Review-Journal ).
Pre-IPO Market Pulse
Verified News
- Anthropic is up next. It is the biggest name on deck, and reports point to a late-November debut ( Zacks ).
- OpenAI is waiting. OpenAI ruled out a 2026 IPO and is instead seeking about $30B at a $1.4 trillion valuation ( Yahoo Finance ).
- The SpaceX effect. SpaceX's June IPO raised a record $75B ( CNBC ). Since then, investors have been "flocking to Musk's companies," including Boring ( Yahoo Finance ).
- Crypto IPO queue. Kraken has moved to 2027, while Blockchain.com is reportedly targeting a $6B IPO ( Yahoo Finance ).
- The cautionary note. The 10-year Treasury yield hit 5.29% on Sept. 29, and average post-IPO returns for 2026 debuts have slid from 24% in June to under 1% ( ScanX ).
G.L.A Take (Opinion)
- The private market is where the biggest innovation stories are still being written. Top companies are raising huge rounds privately and going public on their own schedule.
- Be super picky when choosing investments, choose companies you want to own for the long term, not just for the IPO pop. Every name on our list is one we'd want to hold for years after it lists.
Bottom Line
Anduril is winning contracts like a prime contractor. Anthropic is heading toward the biggest tech IPO in history. Databricks, Crusoe, Shield AI, and Saronic are scaling fast. The infinite innovation cycle is alive and well, and the G.L.A Top 15 is built to ride it.
Stay curious. Stay long-term. Stay innovative.
— G.L.A INVE$T RE$EARCH The Infinite Innovation Newsletter
Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not investment or financial advice. Private-company investments are illiquid, high-risk, and generally limited to accredited investors. Valuations cited are from reported funding rounds or secondary markets and may not reflect current value. Do your own research and consult a licensed financial professional before investing.