Key points
- Ondas owns Regna AI at launch
- Palantir provides training infrastructure
- Ondas will be the first customer
- No financial terms or outside customers named
Ondas (ONDS) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR) announced the formation of Regna AI on October 12, a new company meant to help governments and businesses build AI models they can run in environments they control.
Regna AI is initially wholly owned and funded by Ondas. Palantir will provide model-training infrastructure and help deliver its systems, according to the October 12 announcement. Ondas will also be its first customer. The release disclosed no investment amount, revenue target, or named outside customers.
Ondas will use the models in the field
Ondas plans to deploy Regna AI's fine-tuned models on drones, stratospheric balloons, ground vehicles, surface vessels, and command-and-control systems, including where connections are weak or unavailable.
The models would help operators weigh evidence, compare options, and propose changes to mission plans. A person would review and authorize those changes, according to the release.
Regna AI builds on SkyWeaver C4I, an existing Ondas-Palantir program connecting stratospheric surveillance with units operating in the field. Ondas said it is seeing "significant demand" for these capabilities and plans initial customer deployments with Regna AI and Palantir over the coming months.
Brock and Karp pitch control over the models
"No government should have to build its AI strategy on models or data infrastructure it does not control," said Eric Brock, chairman and CEO of Ondas.
"We believe Regna AI can become a foundational AI platform for the U.S. Department of War, allied governments and the defense and industrial companies that serve them," Brock said.
"Sovereign AI, trained on mission knowledge and tradecraft, outperforms frontier models while removing dependence on them," said Palantir CEO Alex Karp. "Regna AI will put that within reach of institutions that could never justify building a frontier model of their own." The release provides no benchmark results supporting that comparison.
The release says building a model from scratch can cost customers hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. Regna AI is built on Palantir's AIP platform. It starts from open-weight models, whose trained parameters are available for developers to use and adapt under the applicable licenses.
Regna AI plans to go beyond defense
Regna AI will start with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance work for Ondas. The company plans to expand into other mission areas and into security, critical infrastructure, and industrial markets.
In September, Palantir named Nebius its preferred sovereign AI infrastructure partner. On October 5, Ondas announced a $56 million order for electronic safe and arm devices for a European loitering munition program.
I'm watching for the first disclosed outside customer. That would show whether Regna AI's pitch is gaining traction beyond Ondas itself.
Ondas shares rose 2.7 percent in premarket trading on October 12, to $6.91 as of 8:30 a.m. ET, from Friday's $6.73 close. Palantir slipped 0.3 percent to $208.44.
