With a valuation reaching $61 billion following a just announced $5 billion fund raise, Anduril Industries, founded in 2017, stands atop Orange County’s collection of fast-growing startups.
The Costa Mesa defense contractor might also be the area’s largest incubator of new tech products and technologies, says founder Palmer Luckey.
“Anduril is so much cooler than people think Anduril is cool,” Luckey quipped on social media earlier this month. “You think Anduril is cool? Okay. Wait till you see the products we haven’t even started to hint at.”
The maker of AI-powered drones, fighter jets, submarines and other James Bond-like weapons has “half a dozen [in-the-works] gamechangers in their own right, each of which could easily be a $1B+ startup on their own,” said Luckey.
A profile of Anduril CEO Brian Shimpf in Fortune magazine this month stated that the firm’s “revenue projections for 2026 are $4.3 billion, up from $2.2 billion in 2025.”
Anduril, with over 8,000 employees and an IPO expected in the coming years, is aiming for much greater heights. “We could be a trillion-dollar company,” Schimpf told Fortune.
It’s been a busy few weeks for CathWorks CEO Ramin Mousavi.
In late April, the cardiac-focused medical device maker completed its $585 million sale to Medtronic, following an initial investment in the Newport Beach firm in 2022.
Earlier this month, Mousavi was one of three inductees into the UCI Samueli School of Engineering’s Hall of Fame. The 2008 electrical engineering grad joined TPG Capital’s Afshin Mohebbi and Professor Jonathan Posner, whose founded of a company that makes safer football helmets, as inductees this year.
It’s the latest accolade for Mousavi, who has been named a Business Journal Innovator of Year and Excellence in Entrepreneurship award winner in prior years.
“What inspired me most [at the UCI induction ceremony] was being surrounded by people committed to solving hard problems — not for recognition, but because the world desperately needs more problem solvers,” Mousavi said on LinkedIn.
Last week, he was also named Executive Chairman of Dallas-based NeuWire Medical, a medical device company developing a nerve stimulation platform for post-stroke rehabilitation.
The billionaire benefactors whose names adorn UCI’s School of Engineering and its new Integrated Health Institute are putting more funds towards another research facility outside the U.S.
Recent reports from Israel said that Corona del Mar’s Henry and Susan Samueli recently gave $50 million to Beilinson Hospital, for the Samueli Integrative Cancer Pioneering Institute, which was established in 2023 following a $25 million donation from the couple.
The latest, $50 million gift is reported to be the largest donation directed towards research for a hospital in Israel.
