CNBC exclusive: First look at Shield AI’s new AI-piloted military fighter drone

Published

3 days ago

October 21, 2025

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Shield AI is trying to shake up the defense industry.

The company, which is valued at $5.3 billion after securing $240 million in its latest round of funding, is set to unveil its next generation, autonomous fighter jet known as the X-Bat on Wednesday.

CNBC got exclusive access to the company’s headquarters ahead of the launch.

Shield AI says the unmanned aircraft has a jet engine, will have a 2,000 mile range, can fly up to 50,000 feet and has the ability to take off and land vertically, enabling it to operate in remote locations without a runway — like on a ship in the middle of the ocean.

The X-Bat will be piloted by an AI software developed by Shield AI called Hivemind. The company is now hinging a lot of its future on artificial intelligence development.

“The software is a cornerstone and foundation for everything we do,” said Shield AI CEO Gary Steele. “It will ultimately be the long term growth driver of this business because it enables the development of this next generation aircraft.”

Shield AI ranks number 38 on the 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

X-Bat combines some of the defense industry’s most advanced technologies into one fighter jet. There have been experimental aircrafts built as early as the 1950s with vertical takeoff and landing capabilities but they required pilots. Shield AI has also used Hivemind to fly the F-16, one of the most widely used modern fighter jets, autonomously.

“But those two things — AI piloted and vertical takeoff launch and land — have never come together in the form of a next generation aircraft,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI president and co-founder.

The company says its on track to produce the X-Bat for around $27 million, which is a fraction of what advanced military aircrafts typically cost. For example, the F-35 fighter jet that’s currently in use by the U.S. government and allies, costs more than $100 million to produce.

Unlike Shield AI’s previous aircrafts, the X-Bat is designed for combat and can be equipped with missiles.

“We fundamentally believe we can save service members’ lives by reducing the risk that you have of putting people in danger,” ” said Steele. “What I’m particularly excited about is the mission we’ve been on, and the opportunity that it unlocks from a business perspective.”

Shield AI has been around since 2015 and has already landed some major defense contracts. In 2024, the company secured a nearly $200 million contract with the U.S. coast guard for a drone it produces called the V-Bat.

But the startup is still proving itself in a competitive industry. Although it has grown quickly, the company is relatively small compared to defense primes like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and its biggest startup competitor, Anduril, which is valued at over $30 billion.

Despite generating billions of dollars in revenue, Shield is not yet profitable. In 2023, Forbes reported that the company was on track to reach profitably by 2025. However, those targets were thrown off track when a U.S. service member had his fingers partially severed during a Shield AI drone landing demonstration in 2023.

“Through that process, there were some loss of confidence from customers,” Steele said. “But I think we’ve done a phenomenal job of recovering from that and rebuilding momentum. And today as we sit here, we’re very confident in our ability to deliver great products that are safe.”

Drones have been used in war zones as early as World War I, but their prevalence has grown dramatically in recent years. The war in Ukraine has helped show the general public the scale and prevalence of drone usage on the battlefield today.

“What we see from the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, they are tactically, operationally and strategically absolutely important weapons,” said Oleksandra Molloy, a drone expert and senior aviation lecturer at UNSW Canberra. “We have seen a lack of those systems from the U.S., and particularly, we have not really seen the presence of many American companies in the real battlefield.”

But the U.S. government is now trying to change that. In June 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order called Unleashing American Drone Dominance that aims to accelerate commercialization of drone technologies and integrate them into the National Airspace System. Although no direct dollar amount was attached to that order, the Big Beautiful Bill has allocated billions of dollars in unmanned aerial systems and AI development.

“We have to empower the defense industrial base with the exact same development tools, infrastructure and pipelines that Shield AI has used to make AI autonomy,” Tseng said. “We work directly with the major defense prime contractors of the world. We want to see them wildly successful building AI and autonomy, because at the end of the day, that’s what the warfighter needs. That’s what the United States and our allies need.”

Watch the video to learn more about how Shield AI is making a name for itself in the defense sector.

Technology

More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

Published

6 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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More demand than supply gives companies an edge, Jim Cramer says

“Supply constrained,” are the two of the most important words CNBC’s Jim Cramer said he’s heard so far during earnings season and explained why this dynamic is favorable for companies.

“When you’re supplied constrained, you have the ability to raise prices, and that’s the holy grail in any industry,” he said.

Intel‘s strong earnings results were in part because of more demand than supply, Cramer suggested. He noted that the company’s CFO, David Zinsner, said the semiconductor maker is supply constrained for a number of products, and that “industry supply has tightened materially.”

Along with Intel, other tech names that are also supply constrained and performing well on the market include Micron, AMD and Nvidia, Cramer continued.

These companies don’t have enough product in part because the storage needs of artificial intelligence are incredible high, Cramer said. He added that he thinks demand has overwhelmed supply because semiconductor capital equipment companies didn’t manufacture enough of their own machines as they simply didn’t anticipate such a volume of orders.

Outside of tech, Cramer said he thinks airplane maker Boeing and energy company GE Vernova are also supply constrained, adding that he thinks the former will say it’s short on most of its planes when it reports earnings next week. GE Vernova is supply constrained with its power equipment, like turbines that burn natural gas, he continued, which is the primary energy source for the ever-growing crop of data centers.

GE Vernova and Boeing are also set to be winners because they make big-ticket items that other countries can buy from the U.S. to help close the trade deficit, Cramer added.

“In the end, we have more demand than supply in a host of industries and that’s the ticket for good stock performance,” he said. “I don’t see that changing any time soon.”

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Technology

3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Published

11 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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3 takeaways from Intel earnings: Cash flow, foundry progress and hardware surprise

Wall Street remains skeptical on Intel despite its return to profitability

Intel snapped a losing streak of six straight quarterly losses and returned to profitability in the third quarter.

In its first earnings report since the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in the company, the U.S. chipmaker posted strong revenue, noting robust demand for chips that it expects to continue into 2026.

Client computing revenue, which includes chips for PCs and laptops, grew 5% year over year, benefiting from PC market stabilization and artificial intelligence PC prospects.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a call with analysts Thursday that artificial intelligence “is a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth as we execute.”

The chip strength and demand were bright spots, but there were areas of concern as well, with the company’s foundry business still needing a big break.

Here are three takeaways from the chipmaker’s Q3 report:

Cash flow

“We significantly improved our cash position and liquidity in Q3, a key focus for me since becoming CEO in March,” Tan said on a call with analysts Thursday.

Intel landed an $8.9 billion investment from the U.S. government in August, along with $2 billion from Softbank, but has not yet received the $5 billion tied to a deal with Nvidia. The company expects that deal to close by the end of Q4.

With all of those transactions completed, plus the Altera sale, Intel will have $35 billion in cash on hand, CFO David Zinser told CNBC.

The U.S. government is the company’s biggest shareholder, and Intel stock is up more than 50% since Aug. 22, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced the deal.

“Like any shareholder, we have to keep in touch with them,” Zinser said of the U.S. stake. “We don’t tell them how the numbers are going before the quarter. We generally talk to them like Fidelity,” another Intel shareholder.

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

Intel 3-month stock chart.

Foundry

The firm’s foundry remains a work in progress.

Revenue fell 2% over the year before, and it has yet to land a major customer.

Intel now has two fabs running 18A nodes, which are designed for AI and high-performance computing applications.

“We are making steady progress on Intel 18A,” Tan said of its latest chip technology. “We are on track to bring Panther Lake to market this year.”

Zinser said the more advanced 14A nodes won’t be put in supply until the company has “real firm demand.”

Old stuff still selling

Zinser said the company’s older chipmaking processes, or nodes, have continued to do well, “and that was probably the part that was more unexpected.”

Zinser said the chipmaker met some of the central processing unit (CPU) demand with inventory on hand, but they will be behind in Q1, “probably Q2 and maybe in Q3.”

The supply crunch has been with older Intel 10 and 7 manufacturing technologies.

Many customers are opting for less advanced hardware to refresh their operating systems, demonstrating enterprises aren’t waiting for cutting-edge chips when proven technology gets the job done.