The defense-focused artificial intelligence systems infrastructure startup Valarian Technologies Ltd. said today it has closed on a hefty $50 million early-stage funding round as it looks to position itself as a critical player in the emerging “sovereign AI” market.

The Series A round was led by new investor New Enterprise Associates, which is making its first investment in a European defense startup. It was joined by a strong cohort of backers, including Lightbank, XTX Markets, Sequel and LitVC, plus Gokul Rajaram and Nikesh Arora, who participated as angels.

In 2025, European defense spending reportedly topped €392 billion (around $447 billion), with a significant chunk of that money going to modern AI-driven systems. However, as European nations increase their reliance on AI, they’re becoming increasingly concerned about their reliance on a handful of dominant U.S.-based firms, which can revoke access to their high-end systems at any moment.

Historically, defense organizations and regulated institutions have always snubbed public cloud infrastructure in favor of bespoke, on-premises environments that enable sovereign-level control. As AI becomes a critical component of modern computer systems, there’s a pressing need for a similar level of control over that technology, too.

This is where Valarian says it can help. It has developed a foundational infrastructure layer that enforces sovereignty over modern, AI-powered software environments. It was founded by the former international finance operator Max Buchan and ex-Palantir executive and U.S. Army officer Josh McLaughlin to provide workload-level governance for the sensitive computing environments that host AI systems, mission-critical applications and other key infrastructure.

Valerian’s core infrastructure platform, called ACRA, is designed to grant organizations full and absolute control over how their most critical software systems function, access data and communicate with other platforms. It was originally development for compartmentalized compute and data operations, and primarily caters to government agencies and commercial entities that need to ensure their systems – including those hosted in public clouds – are totally isolated from shared environments.

Buchan said Valarian’s platform is needed because the intelligence layer of western nations is consolidating, contract by contract, into systems that they have no control over. They must urgently reverse this trend, he believes. “We built Valarian because sovereignty isn’t a feature you can add later. It’s architecture you have to build from the ground up,” he explained. “This round gives us the capital to take that architecture to the organizations that need it most, at the moment they need it most.”

Valerian offers two deployment options for customers, including Valarian Enterprise, which is targeted at commercial operations that need to run AI and other workloads with rigorous control. Meanwhile, Valerian Defense is specially geared toward national militaries and defense agencies, giving them to the tools they need to build computing environments that simply cannot take any chances.

The startup’s dual-focus has garnered the support of the U.K. government, which has prioritized domestic AI as a strategic imperative and is no doubt further convinced of the need for sovereignty following the recent actions of its most important ally, the U.S.

Kanishka Narayan, U.K. Minister for AI and Online Safety, said AI technology has become the main currency of both hard and soft power. “To shape our own destiny, in accordance with our values, it is imperative that we build Britain’s sovereign AI capabilities,” he said. “Pioneering British firms like Valarian understand the challenge that’s in front of us and are building the solutions that will help us deliver a safer and stronger Britain.”

NEA partner Mustafa Neemuchwala said he has similar motivations, stressing that sovereign infrastructure is the most vital “next layer” for enterprise and government computing. “The critical question now isn’t which model wins, but who controls the environment that intelligence operates inside,” he said. “Valarian answers that question with genuine defense-grade architecture.”

Image: Valarian