Saronic raises $1.75B at a $9.25B valuation to build autonomous warships in Texas

AUSTIN — Saronic has closed a $1.75 billion Series D led by Kleiner Perkins, more than doubling the autonomous-shipbuilder's valuation to $9.25 billion and ranking among the largest defense-tech rounds of the year. The company, headquartered in Austin, builds AI-piloted surface vessels for the U.S. military.

Saronic produces several autonomous vessel models, from a six-foot craft called Spyglass to a 40-metric-ton platform named Marauder. The new capital will fund supply-chain and shipyard expansion, with the company targeting output of more than 20 ships a year by 2027. Its main yard in Franklin, Louisiana, is undergoing a $300 million expansion, and Saronic is scouting a site for a larger facility dubbed Port Alpha.

The raise follows a $392 million Navy contract the company secured last year, evidence that the autonomous-vessel pitch is converting into procurement and not just venture enthusiasm.

Why it matters

The Pentagon has spent the past two years signaling that it wants large numbers of cheap, attritable, software-defined platforms rather than a handful of exquisite ones. Saronic is one of the clearest bets on that thesis, and its valuation jump shows investors believe defense autonomy is now a durable category. For Austin, it cements the city as a serious node in a defense-tech wave that until recently clustered around El Segundo and the Bay Area.

Saronic plans to use the funding to scale its supply chain and shipyards and build more than 20 ships a year by 2027.— Saronic, company statement