Drone and robotics maker Skydio announced Friday that it plans to spend $3.5 billion over the next five years to expand its manufacturing footprint and expedite research and development in the United States.

The Silicon Valley-based company’s plans include opening a new facility that is “five times larger” than its existing manufacturing space to meet “extraordinary demand,” per the press release.

Skydio’s investment in its suppliers will help the drone maker expand, and in some cases, initiate domestic manufacturing of crucial parts and components, the company said in the press release.

Skydio said it will invite select suppliers to co-locate production capacity with the company and provide them access to manufacturing space and engineering to help cultivate the drone industry.

The news comes a day after Skydio raised $110 million in a Series F financing round, which would accelerate production scaling to meet demand from its public safety, defense, critical infrastructure, and site security customers, CEO Adam Bry said in a blog post.

The funds raised Skydio’s valuation to $4.4 billion, Bry added. Despite investors’ strong backing, the CEO said the most “significant fact” is how little the drone manufacturer is raising as its capital needs are “rapidly decreasing.”

“We are in the hard-earned and extremely rare position amongst [artificial intelligence] and robotics companies of having a strong core business generating hundreds of millions in annual revenue, with strong unit economics and hypergrowth, that is funding more and more of our ongoing operations and future bets,” Bry said.

Bry did not disclose who the investors were for the latest round. However, previous prominent investors included Nvidia, Lockheed Martin and Siemens.

Skydio was established in 2014 in San Mateo, California, and has four manufacturing facilities in Hayward, California, which the company has outgrown in eight years, per the press release. The Silicon Valley-based company has shipped more than 60,000 flying robots to over 3,800 customers, including public safety agencies, throughout the U.S. Customers also include the U.S. military, 29 allied nations’ militaries and over 450 utility and energy companies.

On the global stage, Skydio has faced pushback from China over the past couple of years. The country’s government has placed the drone manufacturer on its restricted or prohibited list from engaging in import or export activities and from investing in China.

In October 2024, the People’s Republic of China sanctioned Skydio for selling or supplying military weapons and systems to Taiwan. As a result, the company introduced limits for customers of one battery per drone, Bry wrote in an October 2024 blog post. The company’s only customer in Taiwan at the time was the National Fire Agency.

By: DocMemory
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