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President Trump Makes Announcement With Defense Secretary Hegseth In The Oval Office <\/p>\n President Trump Makes Announcement With Defense Secretary Hegseth In The Oval Office <\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, talks about the \u201cGolden Dome\u201d missile defense system with President Donald Trump in the White House on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n
Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
A small group of venture capital firms is driving a record flood of capital into defense tech as investors seize geopolitical tailwinds, including the US war with Iran and continued tensions with China.<\/p>\n
VCs invested a record $19.8 billion into the sector in Q1\u2014the most ever in a single quarter, and more than a third of 2025\u2019s full-year total, according to PitchBook\u2019s Q1 2026 Defense Tech VC Trends<\/a> report. The most active check writers ranged from Andreessen Horowitz<\/a> to a $50 million shop focused on deep tech, underscoring the widespread interest among VCs.<\/p>\n Late-stage and venture growth rounds captured 88% of that $19.8 billion. Median venture growth pre-money valuations reached $1.4 billion, nearly triple the 2025 median of $500 million. The maturing cohort of unicorns now showing real contract traction and manufacturing capacity is what\u2019s drawing the largest checks, said Ali Javaheri, a PitchBook senior emerging technology analyst and the report\u2019s lead author.<\/p>\n The Iran war has been a significant factor in investment growth, but not the only one, according to Ryan Micheletti, co-founder and GP of The Veteran Fund.<\/p>\n \u201cThe macro factors are extremely important to this,\u201d Micheletti said. \u201cYou\u2019re seeing more capital allocators fund the critical technologies that matter, that ensure [the US] remains the dominant global superpower.\u201d<\/p>\n The explosion in investments comes amid the Trump administration\u2019s $839 billion FY 2026 defense budget and the Pentagon\u2019s $151 billion \u201cGolden Dome\u201d missile-defense program. Wall Street has followed: JPMorganChase launched a $1.5 trillion, 10-year initiative last October to \u201cfacilitate, finance and invest\u201d in national security imperatives.<\/p>\n Exit activity also jumped. Celestial AI<\/a>, a photonic interconnect startup developing chip technology for AI data centers, was acquired by Marvell Technology<\/a> in December in a stock and cash deal valued at $3.25 billion. Quantum computing firms Xanadu<\/a> and Infleqtion<\/a> both went public via SPACs in Q1, at valuations of $3.6 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively.<\/p>\n Here are the top 10 most-active VCs in defense tech in Q1 2026, ranked by deal count globally, according to PitchBook data.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n