Sidley Austin, Covington & Burling, Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Morrison & Foerster (MoFo), Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C), and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised on Shield AI’s acquisition of Aechelon Technology and Sheild AI’s $1.5 billion Series G financing.

Shield AI, a venture-backed defense technology company specializing in AI-powered autonomy software and aircraft systems, has acquired Aechelon Technology Inc., a Sagewind Capital portfolio company. Aechelon provides high-fidelity simulation and synthetic reality environments used by the U.S. military and allies to train pilots and test advanced aircraft and autonomous systems, including the Pentagon’s Joint Simulation Environment.

Simultaneously, Shield AI raised $1.5 billion in Series G funding at a $12.7 billion post-money valuation, including $500 million in fixed-return preferred equity financing from Blackstone-managed funds. Part of the proceeds will support the Aechelon acquisition, with additional capital to fund Shield AI’s growth initiatives.

Sidley Austin LLP advised Shield AI on the acquisition of Aechelon Technology.

The deal team included Partner Andrew Fadale, Partner Justin Macke, Matt Naifeh, John Ghazoul, Spencer Li, Sven De Knop, Kyle Fiet, James Mendenhall, Maryanne Kamau, Ben Vallimarescu, Christian Brause, Eric Grosshandler, Amy Rubin, Ryan McLeod, Rebecca Stuart, Kristina Daisak, Elizabeth McCloy, Brandon Bryer, Ash Nagdev, Ben Cross, Kyle Barnett, Andy Dykstra, Craig Dukin, Vadim Brusser, Alex Kaplan, Deborah Sands, Maureen Crough, Sarah Jehl, and Scott Goldstein.

Covington & Burling LLP advised Shield AI on regulatory, government contracts, national security, and trade matters. The team was led by Scott Freling, along with Ryan Burnette, Akash Shah, Sela Carrington, Heather Finstuen, Jacob Crump, Steve Bartenstein, Seth Atkisson, and Fiza Khan.

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP advised Sagewind Capital and Aechelon Technology on the sale to Shield AI. The team included Ted Ackerman, Robert Balis, David Tarr, David Epstein, Scott Sontag, Richard Pepper, Yuni Sobel, Rebecca Coccaro, Peter Fisch, and Claudine Meredith-Goujon.

Morrison & Foerster LLP advised Aechelon Technology on government contracts matters.

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP advised Shield AI on the $1.5 billion Series G financing.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP advised Blackstone on the preferred equity investment. The team included Michael Chao, Anthony Vernace, Julia Tory, Avery Golombek, Soraia Esteves, Brian Gluck, Jonathan Ozner, Jonathan Goldstein, Sophie Staples, George Rhein, Roberto Arza, Gregory Grogan, Jesslyn Nunez, Lori Lesser, Isabella Gonzalez, Alexander Kokka, Corina DeFeo, Leah Malone, Carina Mitchell, Matt Feehily, Peter Guryan, Kelly Karapetyan, Nathaniel Bronstein, Mick Tuesley, Ryan Stalnaker, Shinae Yoon, and Krista McManus.