# 8VC [[Joe Lonsdale]]'s venture capital firm and the **third pillar of the defense tech VC triad** alongside [[Founders Fund]] and [[Andreessen Horowitz]]. Founded in 2014 by the [[Palantir]] co-founder. ~$6B+ AUM across multiple funds. Based in Austin, Texas (relocated from San Francisco in 2021). 8VC is the Palantir Mafia's dedicated funding vehicle. Where Founders Fund is Thiel's generalist empire and a16z's American Dynamism is a practice within a larger firm, 8VC is a purpose-built fund whose identity is inseparable from its founder's defense tech origins. The "8" in the name refers to Lonsdale's belief in building companies across eight sectors — but in practice, defense and government technology is the center of gravity. ## The Build Program 8VC's distinctive model: the **Build program** co-founds companies from scratch, allocating 25–30% of fund capital to company creation rather than traditional deal flow. This makes 8VC a defense company factory, not just a defense company funder. Companies co-founded through Build: | Company | What It Does | Status | |---------|-------------|--------| | **[[Epirus]]** | Counter-drone directed energy weapons (HPM systems) | $250M Series D (2025) | | **[[Saronic Technologies]]** | Autonomous naval surface vessels | $600M+ raised; $7.5B valuation | | **Joby Aviation** | Electric air taxis (military applications) | Public (NYSE: JOBY) | | **OpenGov** | Government financial transparency software | Acquired by Cox Enterprises | | **Addepar** | Wealth management platform | $3.5B+ valuation | The Build model means 8VC doesn't wait for defense startups to appear — it designs them around specific capability gaps identified through Lonsdale's Palantir-era Pentagon relationships. ## Defense & Government Portfolio Beyond Build, 8VC has assembled the deepest defense tech portfolio of any mid-size VC: | Company | What It Does | Role | |---------|-------------|------| | **[[Anduril]]** | Autonomous weapons, Lattice OS | Co-investor (with a16z, Founders Fund) | | **[[Epirus]]** | Directed energy / counter-drone | Lead investor; co-founded | | **[[Saronic Technologies]]** | Autonomous naval vessels | Lead investor; co-founded | | **[[Shield AI]]** | Autonomous military drones, Hivemind | Multi-round investor | | **Joby Aviation** | eVTOL aircraft | Co-founded | | **[[Flock Safety]]** | License plate reader surveillance | Co-investor | | **Hadrian** | AI defense manufacturing | Co-investor | ## The Co-Investment Web 8VC's defense portfolio overlaps extensively with the other two defense VC pillars: | Company | 8VC | [[Founders Fund]] | [[Andreessen Horowitz]] | [[General Catalyst]] | |---------|-----|--------------|---------------------|-------------------| | [[Anduril]] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (co-lead) | ✓ | | [[Epirus]] | ✓ (lead) | ✓ | — | — | | [[Saronic Technologies]] | ✓ (lead) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | [[Shield AI]] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | | [[Flock Safety]] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (lead) | — | | [[Hadrian]] | — | ✓ (lead) | ✓ | — | **Founders Fund co-invests in 17 companies alongside 8VC.** The interlocking ownership means the same network of three to four firms controls access to capital for the entire defense tech sector. A startup seeking defense VC funding will encounter the same people — and the same ideological expectations — regardless of which door it walks through. ## The Austin Move In 2021, Lonsdale relocated 8VC from San Francisco to Austin, Texas — part of the broader Silicon Valley-to-Texas migration that included Musk (Tesla HQ), Palantir (Denver), and Oracle (Austin). The move aligned 8VC with: - **Texas defense industry:** Proximity to military installations and defense contractors - **Political alignment:** Texas's Republican governance and deregulatory environment - **Lonsdale's Cicero Institute:** His Austin-based policy think tank bridging VC interests and state-level government reform ## The Structural Position 8VC occupies a specific niche in the KB's funding network: 1. **Palantir lineage:** Lonsdale co-founded Palantir, giving 8VC direct institutional knowledge of what the Pentagon needs and how to sell to it 2. **Build-as-conflicts:** The Build model creates companies specifically designed to win government contracts — the fund literally manufactures its own defense portfolio companies, then advocates for the procurement policies that benefit them 3. **Cicero Institute bridge:** Lonsdale's policy think tank connects 8VC's commercial interests to state and federal policy reform, creating a VC-to-policy pipeline parallel to [[Eric Schmidt]]'s SCSP 4. **Erebor integration:** 8VC invested $250M+ in [[Erebor]], the Lonsdale-Luckey bank for the defense tech ecosystem — extending the network from weapons (Anduril) to data (Palantir) to finance (Erebor) ## See Also - [[Joe Lonsdale]] — Founder; Palantir co-founder - [[Founders Fund]] — Primary co-investment partner; Thiel's fund - [[Andreessen Horowitz]] — Co-investment partner; American Dynamism - [[Palantir]] — Lonsdale's origin company - [[Anduril]] — Crown jewel defense investment (shared with FF and a16z) - [[Epirus]] — Co-founded via Build program - [[Saronic Technologies]] — Co-founded via Build program - [[Erebor]] — Defense tech bank; 8VC lead investor - [[Defense Tech Conflicts of Interest]] - [[Palantir Mafia]] - [[Musk-Thiel Funding Map]]