Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas company, and defence technology firm Anduril have launched a joint venture called Warhound. It emerged from stealth last Thursday. Warhound aims to create a new generation of working military dogs. It will combine Colossal's genetic engineering with Anduril's cybernetic augments, to make the animals better suited to, and better protected on, today's advanced battlefields. The headline says the venture raised $200 million.

Billionaire Luckey co-launches Warhound, a startup for bioengineered military dogs. The company wants to 'rebuild America's domestic supply of elite dogs.' Anduril will equip them with military gear. PUBLISHED: October 23, 2026 at 4:02 PM PDT UPDATED: October 23, 2026 at 4:27 PM PDT Billionaire Palmer Luckey, who founded Costa Mesa-based defense technology firm Anduril, has teamed up with another billionaire from Texas to bioengineer military dogs. Luckey and Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences on Friday launched a $200 million startup backed by a Who's Who list of venture capitalists, including Sequoia Capital, ARK Invest, Franklin Templeton, 8VC, among others. The nascent Warhound said Friday that it plans to "rebuild America's domestic supply of elite working dogs for U.S. military forces, law enforcement and emergency first response teams." David Spirk, a former senior counselor with defense tech firm Palantir Technologies, was appointed to lead the startup as chief executive officer. It's unclear from the announcement whether Warhound will work with Belgian Malinois, a breed used extensively by the U.S. military and police officers, or some other type of dog. The company sees a shortage of dogs to work with, especially since only half of the dogs trained qualify for service. A spokeswoman for Warhound, which will be based in Texas, told the Southern California News Group that about 85% of the dogs the military buys come from European breeders, and that the U.S. is competing against China and Russia for what's available. She said about 5,600 - or about 10% of the 55,000 trained dogs that assist humans in the U.S. today - support national security missions. She cited a statement provided by the American Kennel Club that said there is a shortage of even "mediocre quality foreign dogs." "The first dogs are now in development," she said. Those dogs have already been "biobanked" and are being edited now, the company said, with the goal of producing healthier animals. A biobank is a facility that collects and manages biological samples - such as blood, saliva, tissue and DNA - along with associated health and lifestyle data for medical research. The first puppies will be born in the first quarter of 2027, she said. "Combined with cloning, this approach is designed to create a more predictable domestic supply on a consistent schedule, reducing reliance on European sourcing." The American Humane Society said it will certify the company's training programs and support the reunification of retired military working dogs with their former handlers and adoption protocols. "Breakthroughs in science and genetics have the potential to improve the welfare and safety of animals serving in the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies," the American Humane Society said in a statement provided to SCNG. "We look forward to working with them to help ensure the animals in their care are treated humanely," the organization said. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had little good to say about Warhound. "It's a pity that some people with enormous amounts of money have very little common sense," said Colleen O'Brien, senior vice president with PETA. "Genetically engineering dogs for dangerous military work is a stunningly old-fashioned idea at a time when other agencies are phasing out the use of dogs in favor of robotics, AI, and other state-of-the-art technology that can be used without putting dogs in harm's way," O'Brien said. An Anduril spokesperson on Friday said that 34-year-old Palmer isn't an investor in Warhound. Instead, Anduril will be partnering with the startup "to support hardware for the dogs later down the road." Lamm, 44, was unavailable for comment. The startup is bringing together Colossal's work in genetics, cloning and animal biology with Anduril's advanced defense technology to "fundamentally change how America produces, trains, and protects its military working dogs." Colossal Biosciences said it would help produce "healthier dogs with characteristics suited to demanding missions, while Anduril's technology will give dogs and their handlers greater awareness and protection in the field." Warhound plans to tap Anduril's Eagle Eye technology, which is headgear integrated into an operator's helmet, that will allow a handler to see what the dog sees. Lamm started Colossal Biosciences along with Harvard geneticist George Church with the goal of reviving extinct animals - like the "wooly mammoth" - or endangered species, Forbes magazine reported last year. Founded in 2017, Anduril develops aerial drones, surveillance networks and autonomous underwater systems using artificial intelligence technology. Anduril has been expanding its manufacturing capacity, announcing plans in January for a $1 billion production facility in Long Beach while building a 5 million-square-foot industrial park in Ohio for combat aircraft production. The Costa Mesa office campus where Anduril leases its headquarters, was recently put up for sale in a deal that could be worth about $400 million, potentially making it the region's largest transaction this year. Let's talk Business: From real estate to tourism, catch up on local business news with this daily newsletter.

American billionaire Palmer Luckey helps launch $200 million military dog-cloning startup. Warhound, started by Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Colossal Biosciences chief Ben Lamm, raised $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for the military. October 23, 2026. 2:16 PM American billionaire Palmer Luckey, the founder of defense contractor Anduril Industries, has teamed up with fellow billionaire Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences to launch Warhound, a startup that plans to clone and genetically engineer dogs for the U.S. military, police and emergency services. The Texas-based company came out of stealth on Thursday with $200 million in seed funding at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Its backers include In-Q-Tel, the venture capital firm funded by the CIA, along with Sequoia Capital, ARK Invest, Franklin Templeton and 8VC. "Man's best friend deserves man's best tech," Luckey said in a statement announcing the company. Lamm, the chief executive of Colossal, said he and Luckey first discussed the idea at Peter Diamandis' Moonshots Summit. Luckey is a partner in the venture but holds no equity in it, and neither does Anduril, Lamm said. Colossal owns a stake and licenses its genetics and cloning technology to Warhound. David Spirk, a Marine Corps veteran who served as the Defense Department's first chief data officer and later worked as a senior counselor at Palantir Technologies, will run the company as chief executive. Fixing a supply problem Warhound says more than 80% of the dogs used by the U.S. military's 2,200-plus working dog teams come from Europe. Fewer than half of the dogs bought make it through about three years of training, which means the Pentagon has to source roughly 200 dogs to field 100. Many wash out because of inherited problems such as poor eyesight, hip dysplasia, muscle wasting and cancer risk. The company has built a bank of cell lines from proven working dogs, starting with Belgian Malinois and German Shepherds, two breeds widely used for bomb detection, patrol and search work. It plans to clone those animals first, then use gene editing to remove traits that end training careers and, later, to strengthen speed, agility and sense of smell. Lamm said future work could draw on wolf genes linked to scent detection. The first cloned puppies are being carried now and are due in early 2027, with the aim of putting dogs into service within about two years. ViaGen Pets & Equine, a Texas animal-cloning company that Colossal bought in November 2025, is handling the cloning. "Every day, we ask dogs to put their lives on the line to protect ours," Lamm said. "They detect explosives, protect our troops, and run toward dangers that most people are trained to run away from." Anduril will supply equipment worn by the dogs, including eye and ear protection, sensor-fitted vests and its Eagle Eye system, to give handlers better awareness in the field. Lamm said the gear goes on top of the dog and not in it, and that the animals will not carry implanted computers. Warhound has not set prices or announced contracts. Its target buyers are the Defense Department, other military groups, police forces and first responders, and Lamm said the company has already briefed a number of government agencies. American Humane, the animal welfare group, will certify its training programs and help reunite retired dogs with their former handlers. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the work needs careful ethical review and meaningful oversight. Rules on gene-edited animals in the U.S. remain unsettled. Two founders worth $11.6 billion Luckey, 34, built the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset as a teenager and sold Oculus VR to Facebook in 2014 for about $2 billion in cash and stock. He started Anduril in 2017 after leaving Facebook. The company, which makes autonomous drones, surveillance towers and weapons systems, raised $5 billion in May at a $61 billion valuation, double the $30.5 billion it was valued at in June 2025. Luckey is worth an estimated $5.9 billion. Lamm, 44, co-founded Colossal in Dallas in 2021 with Harvard geneticist George Church. The company is trying to bring back the woolly mammoth, the dodo and the Tasmanian tiger, and in April 2025 it unveiled three gene-edited gray wolf pups that it called dire wolves, an animal that died out more than 10,000 years ago. Colossal is valued at more than $10 billion, and Lamm is worth an estimated $5.7 billion. He has founded or co-founded five other companies, all of which were sold. "Palmer, Ben and the Warhound team are exceptional. Sequoia is proud to back them," said Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital. The intelligence satisfies curiosity. The paid briefings satisfy strategy. Every Monday, Elite subscribers receive an Investor Memo breaking down the deal, the structure and the positioning behind the week's most consequential African wealth story - the kind of analysis that doesn't appear anywhere else. Twice a month, a Wealth Intelligence brief profiles a single billionaire's holdings, cash flows and expansion pipeline in detail no public source matches. Elite ($75/mo): Everything above + Investor Memos + Wealth Intelligence + Quarterly Analyst Briefings