Anduril’s Border Empire: How a Billionaire-Backed AI Firm Took Over U.S. Immigration Enforcement
Since 2018, Anduril Industries—a rapidly growing defense tech firm backed by billionaire Peter Thiel and founded by Palmer Luckey—has landed 16 contracts from the Department of Homeland Security worth over $550 million. The goal? To blanket the U.S.-Mexico border with autonomous surveillance towers, AI-powered drones, and military-grade interceptor systems. What started as a modest border security pilot project has morphed into a full-blown, algorithm-driven enforcement machine.