Defense tech firm Covenant opens U.S. missile factory, exits stealth

Key Points:

• Covenant, a defense tech startup founded in 2024, announced a new 105,000-square-foot factory in Dallas to produce lower-cost long-range cruise missiles for the U.S. military, aiming to start serial production in Q1 2027.
• The company secured $250 million in funding from prominent investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Lux, 8VC, Aleph, and Lightspeed, highlighting growing venture capital interest in defense technology.
• Covenant's Anthem missile offers a more affordable alternative to legacy systems like RTX's Tomahawk, with plans to produce 1,000 missiles in the first year and scale up to 5,000 annually to meet increasing military demand amid ongoing conflicts.
• The startup announced two Department of Defense contracts to accelerate testing with the Army and adapt the Anthem missile for maritime use with the Navy, reflecting its expanding role in U.S. defense procurement.
• High-profile investors like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen are increasingly influential in defense tech, with Andreessen recently joining the Pentagon's defense policy board and launching a multibillion-dollar aerospace and defense fund.