An economic development group in Ohio has provided Anduril Industries with a $310 million grant for its giant military weapons factory near Columbus, Ohio, adding to the $452 million promised tax breaks being provided by the Buckeye State.
JobsOhio said July 9 that it is giving a 30-year grant to Anduril to fund the defense company’s major investment in Ohio, known as Arsenal-1.
Costa Mesa-based Anduril has promised to create 4,000 Ohio jobs by 2035 at the drone and weapons manufacturing plant near Rickenbacker International Airport. The state is also promising $70 million to improve the airport.
Ohio has been making a push to create more military- and tech-oriented businesses.
Anduril, co-founded by tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, has been growing by leaps and bounds. For example, it’s reportedly doubled its space near Seattle to nearly 40,000 square feet, while across the Atlantic it is collaborating with Rheinmetall, Europe’s largest munitions maker.
Creating 4,000 Jobs, $132,305 Average Salary
The Anduril Ohio plant’s products will include tens of thousands of autonomous weapons systems to be used by the U.S. military and its allies. Anduril uses artificial intelligence to build autonomous systems and weapons for the military.
The factory is being built at a time when military experts are increasingly sounding the alarm about the lagging U.S. defense industry.
Over the next decade, Anduril has committed to generating more than $530 million in payroll and investing at least $910.5 million in capital improvements at the Ohio site.
JobsOhio said its assistance is payable over the next 10 years, and those commitments must be maintained for the remaining 20 years of the 30-year deal.
When Arsenal-1 is fully staffed and operational in 2035, the average salary for workers at the facility will be just over $132,305 annually, boosting payroll taxes to the Ohio Treasury for at least the next 20 years, JobsOhio said on its website.
JobsOhio is a private nonprofit corporation that uses profits from a liquor enterprise to fund its projects, under a franchise arrangement with the state of Ohio.
Arsenal-1 will be a 5-million-square-foot facility in Pickaway County.
By comparison, the Pentagon, the world’s largest low-rise office building, has 6.5 million square feet.
Anduril also recently announced an arrangement with Meta on a VR/AR project for the U.S. Army, while co-founder Luckey is teaming up with other tech billionaires to start a new bank called Erebor, N.A.
Seattle Expansion
Anduril, led by CEO Brian Schimpf, is growing elsewhere as well.
Anduril is expanding in the Seattle area with new office space in Bellevue, Washington, according to GeekWire, doubling its size there.
The defense tech giant leased 39,851 square feet at Skyline Tower through a sublease with Meta, according to a recent report from Broderick Group cited by GeekWire.
A spokesperson with Anduril confirmed that the company is taking one floor and is keeping its existing office in Seattle that opened in 2020.
Anduril now reportedly has about 375 employees in the Seattle region.
Germany’s Rheinmetall
In June, Rheinmetall of Germany also signed an agreement with Anduril.
The partnership will focus on manufacturing drones that can be sold to Germany and its European partners, which are looking to lessen their reliance solely on the United States to meet their military needs.
The collaboration will include development of European variants of Anduril’s Barracuda cruise missile and the Fury attack drone as well as looking at opportunities for solid rocket motors for European use leveraging Anduril’s new production approaches.
AI, Lattice Software
Anduril is challenging such behemoths as Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), RTX Corp. (NYSE: RTX, formerly Raytheon) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC).
Newport Beach-based CT Realty is developing the 5-million-square-foot Ohio complex with Anduril.
Anduril has been subject to criticism for its autonomous weapons goals. It was dubbed “tech’s most controversial startup” by Bloomberg in 2019. Some opponents say military weapons that make their own decisions raise various ethics questions.
4,000 Jobs Commitment by Anduril Tied to Financial Backing
The $310 million grant provided by JobsOhio to Anduril Industries is the latest incentive provided to the Costa Mesa-based company to build its giant plant near Columbus, Ohio.
The Buckeye state also granted the Costa Mesa-based company $452.2 million in tax breaks for its Arsenal-1 plant.
Both grants come with long-term commitments on Anduril’s part, including job creation.
Anduril has promised to create 4,000 Ohio jobs by 2035, with workers contributing to a new drone and military weapon manufacturing facility near Rickenbacker International Airport.
The state also plans to spend $70 million on a taxiway and other improvements at the airport to accommodate the company, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
When the project was announced in January, Anduril said it planned to invest nearly $1 billion of its own dollars in Arsenal-1. That commitment has not changed.
“Our investment will remain the same,” an Anduril spokesperson told the Business Journal on July 14.
Anduril secured a new funding round of $2.5 billion, bringing the company’s valuation to $30.5 billion, Executive Chairman Trae Stephens told Bloomberg Television in June.
Founders Fund, the venture capital firm backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, led the new funding round with a $1 billion investment.