April 2026 Edition

Spring in defense tech is bringing physical infrastructure back to the US. The April milestones across the portfolio aren’t pitch deck claims; they’re concrete deliveries against multi-year roadmaps. Antares cleared its final regulatory gate before reactor startup. Anduril opened Arsenal-1 months ahead of schedule. The Space Force handed out $3.2B in Golden Dome contracts. And the FY2027 defense request at $1.5T is the largest since WW2. This gives the next four years a fiscal backbone of a caliber unimaginable when this fund was first formed.

For deeper analysis on the convergence we've been tracking, my Substack Investing in Organized Chaos continues to publish on these themes.

Portfolio Spotlight

Cyrus is proud to support transformative companies building the physical backbone of American dominance:

Arbor Energy

Arbor announced a partnership with GridMarket on March 25 to deliver up to 5 GW of zero-emission baseload power to data centers, manufacturers, and infrastructure developers, with deployment beginning in 2029. The deal is anchored to Arbor's 25 MW HALCYON supercritical CO₂ turbine. The turbine is a modular, factory-built unit engineered to deploy meaningfully faster than traditional power infrastructure. A 5 GW supply commitment is one of the largest commercial signals in the company's history and slots Arbor squarely into the hyperscaler power buildout we've been tracking since the fund launched. The team continues to advance the ATLAS 1 MW pilot at El Segundo headquarters with first HALCYON delivery targeted for 2028 and gigawatt-scale manufacturing by 2030.

Icarus

Icarus continues stratospheric flight test campaigns and government engagement. In April the broader market validated the category: on April 11, Air Forces Central awarded a $270M IDIQ contract to a competing solar-powered ISR drone provider signaling DOD's deepening commitment to persistent overhead surveillance. This is exactly the gap Icarus's "cell towers in the sky" platform is built to fill at a fraction of satellite cost. CEO Henry Kwan and the team remain heads-down on flight testing ahead of the next demonstration cycle.

Volund Manufacturing

Volund achieved AS9100 certification this month on a fairly quick turnaround. This is the aerospace and defense industry’s quality management standard and contractual prerequisite before working with major primes. AS9100 builds on existing standards with additional requirements around traceability, counterfeit-parts prevention, and configuration control that is specific to aerospace and defense production. The certification formally credentials Volund’s facility for the prime contractor supplier pipeline.

Investment Opportunities & Updates

Our SPV positions continue to demonstrate significant momentum:

Anduril Industries

Two major milestones in this period. On March 23–24, Anduril officially commenced production of the YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft at Arsenal-1 in Pickaway County, Ohio months ahead of the original July 2026 target. COO Matthew Grimm publicly characterized the project as "running both ahead of schedule and under budget which is a rarity in the defense business." The $900M+ facility is designed to produce tens of thousands of autonomous systems per year, engineered as a fungible production floor that can shift between Fury, Roadrunner, and Barracuda based on DOD pull.

On April 24, the U.S. Space Force awarded Anduril one of twelve Other Transaction Authority contracts $3.2B in total to develop space-based interceptor prototypes for Golden Dome. Anduril and Palantir are also collaborating on the program's underlying software and operating system layer.

Antares Nuclear

The clearest schedule convergence story in the portfolio this period. On April 7, the Department of Energy approved the Documented Safety Analysis for the Mark-0 demonstration reactor at Idaho National Laboratory. This is the final design and safety case sign-off and one of the last steps prior to fuel loading and startup. Antares has cleared every gate on or ahead of schedule, and CEO Jordan Bramble has publicly stated the team has comfortable margin against the July 4, 2026 criticality target.

On April 22, the Department of the Air Force selected Antares alongside Radiant and Westinghouse Government Services to develop and operate a microreactor under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) initiative. Under the ANPI model, Antares will own, build, and operate the R1 microreactor while the Air Force pays only for the electricity consumed, with R1 deployment targeted for 2028.

Chaos Inc.

Following its addition to the U.S. Army's G-TEAD Marketplace which allows any Army Service Component Command and NATO ally to procure CHAOS systems without a separate competition the company is supporting continued Army experimentation with VANQUISH distributed radar through 2026, providing on-site integration and rapid software updates based on soldier feedback. The strategic backdrop has only sharpened: the FY2027 budget requests $20.6 billion for Counter-Unmanned Systems, including $14.4B in mandatory funding for counter-drone development and deployment across 250+ sites.

Critical Loop

Critical Loop has officially closed their $26 million Series A in which we participated. The round was led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover, with participation from Better Ventures, Climate Capital, Adapt Nation Capital, and Cyrus Ventures. The company’s total committed financing now stands at $49 million, and CEO Bala Ramamurthy framed the round around shortening time-to-power "from years to mere days" via the company's modular battery and Cygnus power controller. With grid interconnection processing times still averaging 53 months nationally, Critical Loop's bridging model is hitting an inflection point, and the round will support expansion beyond California into additional territories.

Hemispheric AI

Hemispheric continues operating in stealth. The broader non-invasive BCI category is advancing rapidly as closed-loop systems transition from research-grade prototypes to FDA-reviewed clinical pathways. We expect emergence on the company's own timeline.

Impulse Space 

Impulse continues progressing its Helios kick stage and Mira orbital transfer vehicle programs. The VICTUS SURGO Tactically Responsive Space mission the first time Helios will operate on orbit, and a pivotal demonstration for the company's lunar cargo architecture is currently scheduled no earlier than Q4 2026. Engine testing cadence remains strong (Rigel and Helios-related milestones in April), and the company's collaboration with Anduril on Golden Dome space-based interceptor work has been a notable development given the new SBI contract environment.

Stoke Space

Stoke remains on the runway to Nova's first launch from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 14. Engine testing milestones including Zenith ZE12 trim and hot-fire tests generated strong public engagement. AstroForge remains the confirmed payload customer for the Nova demo flight. Stoke holds eligibility for the $5.6B NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 umbrella contract once Nova achieves first launch.

Market Insights

The $1.5 Trillion Backbone

The Trump administration submitted the FY2027 defense request on April 3 for $1.5 trillion. This comprises $1.15T in discretionary funding and $350B in mandatory reconciliation spending. As a percentage of GDP, this approaches Korean War-era levels. Beyond the headline, the structural composition is what matters for the thesis:

• $53.6B "Drone Dominance" ($39.2B for autonomous systems procurement and production capacity, $14.4B for counter-UAS at 250+ sites)

• $30B+ for munitions replenishment (Patriot, Precision Strike Missile, Tomahawks)

• $32.8B for NNSA (+12% vs. FY2026)

• $18B for Golden Dome operationalization

The Iran war that began February 28 has depleted roughly half of U.S. THAAD and Patriot stockpiles within seven weeks, and the U.S. has fired over 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles which is approximately ten times the annual procurement rate. The replenishment requirement is no longer a planning exercise; it's an industrial mobilization. Multi-year, multi-billion-dollar production contracts will follow.

Golden Dome Begins to Take Shape

On April 24, the Space Force awarded $3.2B under Other Transaction Authority to twelve companies: Anduril, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, General Dynamics, Booz Allen Hamilton, True Anomaly, Turion Space, GITAI USA, Quindar, and Sci-Tec. They’ve all been tasked with developing space-based interceptor prototypes. The total Golden Dome program budget has risen to $185 billion, with the SHIELD Multiple-Award IDIQ ($151B ceiling, ~2,440 qualified vendors) serving as the primary contracting backbone. Companies must demonstrate space-based interceptor capability by 2028.

Hyperscalers Have Accepted They Must Own Their Power

In January 2026 alone, Meta signed deals with Vistra, Oklo, and TerraPower locking in over 6 GW of nuclear power. Microsoft's 20-year PPA at the restarted Three Mile Island, Amazon's 1,920 MW Susquehanna deal, and Google's 500 MW Kairos SMR fleet bring the running total to over 10 GW of new U.S. nuclear capacity contracted by hyperscalers in the past year. On April 28, Tooele County, Utah approved a 9 GW data center campus with on-site SMRs and gas generation. The structural implication is now widely accepted: tech giants must own their power plants to secure their computational future. Microreactor demand for AI infrastructure is the cleanest pull-through in the energy stack and Antares sits squarely at that intersection.

Until Next Time

The April 2026 chapter is one I'll come back to as a marker. The fund's thesis was built on the bet that the convergence of defense production and energy infrastructure would force the country to rebuild its physical backbone. Watching Antares enter its final pre-criticality gate, Anduril open Arsenal-1 ahead of schedule, and 5 GW of Arbor capacity get committed to data centers all in the same 45-day window is the convergence in motion.

The next two months should bring the most consequential portfolio milestone in the Cyrus’ investment history: Antares Mark-0 first criticality. Stay tuned.

If you're in LA, reach out. Always happy to connect.

Regards,
Jordan Yashari
Founder & General Partner
Cyrus Ventures