# Brian Schimpf

> Brian Schimpf is the co-founder and CEO of Anduril Industries, where he directs strategy and product development for autonomous defense systems. His path runs from writing code at Kodak as a teenager and leading Cornell's DARPA autonomous-vehicle teams to nearly a decade at Palantir, where he helped build Foundry, and then to Anduril, which he has led since its founding in 2017.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Anduril Industries
- **Organizations:** Anduril Industries, Palantir Technologies, Cornell University
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Anduril Industries in 2017 and has served as CEO since its founding., Helped build Palantir Foundry and led engineering and product organizations as a Director of Engineering., Founded and led Cornell's autonomous-vehicle research program and co-authored technical work on autonomous vehicles.

## Career timeline

- **Late 1990s** — Wrote code during a summer job at Eastman Kodak while in ninth grade.
- **2005** — Co-led Cornell's entry in the DARPA Grand Challenge; the autonomous Spider vehicle reached mile nine before a collision ended its run.
- **2007** — Cornell's Skynet autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe completed the DARPA Urban Challenge; Schimpf graduated from Cornell and joined Palantir.
- **2007-2017** — Worked at Palantir, ultimately serving as Director of Engineering, helping build Foundry, and leading engineering and product organizations serving government customers.
- **2017** — Co-founded Anduril Industries and became CEO.
- **2023** — Testified before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on defense innovation, production, and autonomous systems.
- **2025** — Returned to Cornell for a public conversation about Anduril's growth, engineering culture, and the value of accepting change and failure.
- **2026** — Continued leading Anduril as it expanded global contracts, manufacturing, and production programs across air, land, sea, and software.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Anduril Industries in 2017 and has served as CEO since its founding.
- Helped build Palantir Foundry and led engineering and product organizations as a Director of Engineering.
- Founded and led Cornell's autonomous-vehicle research program and co-authored technical work on autonomous vehicles.
- Helped lead the Cornell team whose Skynet vehicle completed the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.
- Built substantial portions of the early software for Anduril's Sentry and Ghost products, according to an Arena profile based on interviews with company leaders.
- Led Anduril through expansion into multiple autonomous defense product lines and international programs.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Anduril announced that Barracuda had become the first Weapon Open Systems Architecture-compliant weapon moving into large-scale production with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
- **2026-07** — NATO selected Anduril's Lattice software for its Enhanced Air Command and Control Data Platform initiative, the company's first NATO contract.
- **2026-06** — Anduril announced a U.S. Air Force production contract for its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
- **2026-05** — Anduril raised $5 billion at a reported $61 billion valuation; Forbes subsequently estimated Schimpf's net worth at $1.5 billion.
- **2025-11** — Schimpf spoke at Cornell about Anduril's growth, product strategy, and his view that teams should accept change, handle failure, and keep trying.

## Links

- Website: https://www.anduril.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bschimpf
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/schimpfbrian

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/brian-schimpf
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26