2026年第一季度国防科技风险投资趋势

EMERGING TECH RESEARCH Defense TechVC Trends VC activity across the defense tech ecosystem REPORT PREVIEWThe full report is availablethrough the PitchBook Platform. Contents Defense tech landscape3Quarterly analysis4Key takeaways4VC activity5AI themes6Macro backdrop7Procurement signals7Exits8Conclusions9Defense tech VC deal summary33References34 Institutional Research Group Ali JavaheriSenior Research Analyst, Emerging Spacesali.javaheri@pitchbook.com Caleb WilkinsData Analystpbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.comPublished on May 27, 2026 Quarterly analysis UAV grew 254%, UGV 284%, USV 124%, and autonomous manufacturing 190%. Capital flowedto the integration layer rather than to individual platform bets. Defense systems integration and Key takeaways •Defense tech VC has graduated from an industrialization thesis to an industrialization fact.Q12026 closed at $19.8 billion across 262 deals. This was the largest single quarter the dataset hasever recorded. The quarter arrived in the middle of an active combat campaign whose tacticallessons validated the precise-mass doctrine that has guided venture deployment since mid-2024. •Quantum sciences crossed from emerging to investable at scale.Q1 delivered the largestquantum exit cluster on record. Xanadu’s $2.8 billion SPAC merger, Infleqtion’s $1.8 billionSPAC merger, and Quantum Circuits’ $550 million acquisition by D-Wave together generated Q1 surfaced a distinct allied capital formation pattern that the aggregate global data buries. •The bigger-later pattern intensified, and venture growth alone cleared $9.3 billion in a singlequarter.Late stage and venture growth captured 88% of deployed capital. Median venture growthpre-money valuation reached $1.4 billion. This nearly tripled the 2025 median of $500 millionand approached the 2021 peak. Saronic raised $1.8 billion late stage at a $9.3 billion post-money Australia produced the strongest non-US tape. Gilmour Space raised a $217 million Series E atgreater than USD 1 billion post-money, anchored by Australia’s National Reconstruction FundCorporation, Future Fund, Hostplus, HESTA, and QIC alongside Blackbird and Main Sequence.Advanced Navigation followed with a USD 110 million Series C that added Airtree, Quadrant, NRFC, •Autonomy consolidated as the dominant capital allocation theme of the quarter and the year.The segment now runs roughly 60% larger than the next-largest by deployed capital, at $16 billion VC activity Q1 2026 closed at $19.8 billion across 262 deals. QoQ value growth of 28.6% on a deal count declineof 8.4% confirms the bigger-later pattern. YoY value growth of 146% against count growth of 2.7%reinforces the same point. On a trailing-12-month (TTM) basis, deal value of $64.9 billion across 1,073deals compares to a prior TTM of $30.3 billion across 920 deals. That is value growth of 115% on count The stage mix tells the underlying tale. Pre-seed/seed delivered $333 million across 48 deals. Earlystage delivered $2.1 billion across 54 deals. Late stage delivered $8 billion across 107 deals. Venture Valuations expanded across every stage except early-stage VC, which held essentially flat. Seed pre-money valuations roughly doubled, from $17 million to $33.5 million. Late-stage pre-money valuationroughly doubled, from $95 million to $200.8 million. Venture growth pre-money valuation nearly tripled,from $500 million to $1.4 billion. Overall pre-money roughly doubled, from $75 million to $157.5 million. QUARTERLY ANALYSIS Extreme step-ups clustered in subsegments closest to the procurement and operational signal.Starcloud closed at 9.3x at the early stage in in-space services. Neurophos closed at 9.94x in novel AI themes The Pentagon designated Palantir’s Maven Smart System a program of record in March, and Mavenserved as the principal AI targeting system during Operation Epic Fury.DoD users ran 20 billiontokens per day at peak as Maven helped plan and coordinate Operation Epic Fury’s 13,000 airstrikes in38 days. Classified usage surged 89% month-over-month during the campaign.2The system replacednine separate DoD targeting tools and is now used by more than 20,000 active military personnel undera $1.3 billion contract. The program-of-record designation validated defense AI tooling as an investable Segment concentration mirrored the operational tape. Autonomous systems led at $16 billion TTMacross 212 deals. Advanced computing & software delivered the largest dollar acceleration at $9.9billion TTM, up 60% YoY, driven by defense AI tooling rounds. Sensing, connectivity & security at $9.7billion TTM (+59% YoY) was carried entirely by advanced sensors, which grew 311% on a trailing-year The Pentagon designated Anthropic a supply chain risk on February 27, one day before OperationEpic Fury launched.The action followed the collapse of negotiations over Anthropic’s restrictionsagainst use of Claude for autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. The Departmentof War formally noti