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- Welcoming Anduril to the Midwest
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This Week on Landon’s Loop:
🚀 Welcoming Anduril to the Midwest
📊 Chart of the Week
📆 Events Around the City
🔙 Highlights from Last Week
Last week we hosted our 15th AI Tinkerers meetup at the Drive office, and the first of 2025.
The first @aiclubchicago of 2025!
Back like we never left 🤖
— Landon (@landon20s)
12:15 AM • Jan 15, 2025
🚀 Welcoming Anduril to the Midwest
Anduril, an autonomous defense technology company, is building its Arsenal-1 facility in Columbus, Ohio!
Here’s why this move matters:
The Big Picture
Anduril is committing nearly $1B to develop Arsenal-1, one of the largest private-sector investments in Ohio's history.
The project will create 4,000 direct jobs, making it the largest single job-creation initiative in the state's history, with an additional 8,500 jobs generated through suppliers and construction.
The facility will use a software-defined platform called Arsenal OS to simplify the production of autonomous systems and weapons. Arsenal-1 is built for flexibility, allowing resources to be quickly reallocated and production scaled to meet demand. Once fully operational, the 5-million-square-foot facility will produce tens of thousands of military systems each year.
Why Ohio and the Midwest
Ohio has the third-largest skilled manufacturing workforce in the US, which is essential for supporting this project’s ambitious 2026 production goal. The state is home to hubs like Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, NASA Glenn Research Center, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. The Arsenal-1 site is also next to Rickenbacker Airport, which has two 12,000-foot runways.
Palmer Luckey (CEO of Anduril) explained that the decision to launch in the Midwest instead of California was driven by several factors, including the region’s abundance of technical talent, fewer regulatory hurdles, and better access to energy.
Palmer and I
📊 Chart of the Week
The 2024 Fortune 500 HQ numbers are in!
Chicago ranks as the state with the 2nd highest number of Fortune 500 HQs.
📆 Events Around the City
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Chicago Data Night
Wednesday
Hosted by Drive Capital and UChicago
Chicago Meetup with Health Tech Nerds
Wednesday
Content Creators Soirée
Thursday
Inside the Loop Biweekly Coffee
Thursday
Startup Sprint
Friday
Hosted by TJCCC and Drive Capital
👋 See you next week!
Full steam ahead 🚙 💨
Bullish on Chicago.
— Landon (@landon20s)
9:23 PM • Jan 14, 2025
