The trillion-dollar stack: Defense tech is hiring on every floor – opinion

The defense technology sector is experiencing rapid growth and hiring across various specialized layers, despite widespread tech layoffs in other areas. This "trillion-dollar stack" includes platforms, compute, navigation/sensing, firmware/edge autonomy, and manufacturing. While the top platform layer, exemplified by companies like Kela and Anduril, is consolidating and attracting significant investment, the underlying layers are fragmenting and multiplying, creating numerous opportunities. For instance, Kela, founded in 2024, achieved a $1.2 billion valuation with $20 million in revenue, while Anduril's valuation doubled to $61 billion. The article highlights that the demand is driven by states rearming due to global fears, with NATO approving over $40 billion for counter-drone defense alone. The author, Tal Pinkasovich, notes that the "scarcest hire in defense tech right now is not a machine learning researcher. It is a manufacturing engineer." This indicates a shift in where value and opportunity lie, with barriers to entry being lower in the deeper layers of the stack.