Anduril receives $310 million state grant to build drones, weapons in central Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development organization, awarded Anduril Industries $310 million to help build its hyperscale drone manufacturing facility.

JobsOhio announced on Wednesday that it is giving a 30-year grant to Anduril to fund the defense company’s major investment in Ohio. In the grant agreement, Anduril promised to create 4,008 Ohio jobs by 2035, with workers contributing to a new drone and military vehicle manufacturing facility near Rickenbacker International Airport in Pickaway County. See

previous coverage in the video player above.

JobsOhio said Anduril agreed to generate a payroll of more than $530 million and at least $910.5 million in capital investments. According to the agreement, Anduril must meet these goals in the next 10 years and sustain them for the following 20 years to keep the funding. Anduril said the average salary for workers will be just over $132,305 annually, although it did not provide the median salary.

The $310 million grant was exceptionally large, more than double JobsOhio’s funding for Intel. Intel, which also received more than $2 billion in incentives from Ohio and New Albany, was the previous title holder for “largest job creation investment” in Ohio before Anduril took the stage.

Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey said he anticipates a lot of jobs going to Ohioans and a lot of people moving into Ohio to work at the defense manufacturing facility. As Intel mulls 20% layoffs, Anduril is looking for new employees. In March, Luckey told JobsOhio he anticipates recruiting people who work or intended to work for Intel as part of the natural competition between companies.

These jobs will support Arsenal-1, the name given to Anduril’s Ohio facility. The manufacturing operation will create drones and other national security defense systems to help “America Rebuild the Arsenal.” The project will produce tens of thousands of autonomous weapons systems to be used by the U.S. military and its allies. In June, Anduril’s vice president said it is already supplying autonomous weapons to the U.S. and allies like Ukraine, with more to come once Ohio’s factory is operational.

Arsenal-1 will be a 500-million-square-foot facility in Pickaway County, generating an estimated $2 billion annually for Ohio. First announced in January, it is set to open in July 2026.

The grant is on top of a Job Creation Tax Exemption Anduril was approved for in January. The tax credit is valued at an estimated $452.2 million. Anduril also receives significant funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, which bankrolled the start-up in 2017. Last month, Thiel’s Founders Fund gave Anduril $1 billion.

Anduril will expand Ohio’s military economy, with the Buckeye State bringing in $23 billion annually in military and federal spending, per JobsOhio. The market is not without its critics; Anduril was dubbed “America’s most controversial startup” in Bloomberg in 2019. The title stemmed from its interest in computer-operated weapons, or weaponry largely operated by AI, which is expected to be built in Ohio and opponents say raises serious ethical concerns.

Luckey said Anduril must help the U.S. and allies prepare for potential threats, encouraging other private companies to take up the helm alongside him. He told JobsOhio he was concerned to hear the U.S. would run out of munitions within eight days in a hypothetical war with China, citing 2024 projections by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

“We need to move quickly, we need to take targeted risks and we need to get more companies into defense manufacturing, and that includes companies that are not currently defense companies,” Luckey said of U.S. military investments.

Luckey hopes Ohio and Arenal-1 will help fix this problem, adding it is the reason behind Anduril’s ambitious timeline, hoping to open in one year.