Mykhailo Fedorov, the deposed Ukrainian defense minister and one of the most vocal advocates of the use of drones and artificial intelligence on the battlefield, is launching a new company to develop defense technologies.
The first major investor will be none other than Alex Karp, the CEO of the notorious American technology giant Palantir. A little earlier, Fedorov also received the position of adviser to the Italian Minister of Defense, Guido Crozet. It turns out that the man who led the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense until July appeared as an adviser to one of the member states in the space of just one week. NATO-and as the founder of a lucrative private business.
Although he was not reinstated as defense minister, despite weeks of protests in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities where demonstrators demanded his return to the government, the 35-year-old politician and technology entrepreneur has already opened a new chapter in his career. So now he is founding a private company that would turn the experience gained in the war with Russia into products for modern warfare - at the triple border of military technology, international politics and private capital.
The news that Karp will be the first major investor was announced by Fedorov on September 1, after their meeting at Palantir's office in Washington. According to Reuters and the "Washington Post", the new company does not yet have a name, a clearly presented ownership structure, or a defined product portfolio. It is only known that they will rely on the experiences of the Ukrainian war and develop technologies intended for the defense of Ukraine and other allied countries.
According to available information, it was not Palantir as a company that invested in Fedorov's new business, but Alex Karp personally. Still, the symbolism of his entry is great: During the war, Palantir became one of Ukraine's most important U.S. technology partners in artificial intelligence, data processing, and data-driven command.
"You and your colleagues are starting a company that, I believe, will be of importance to the whole world. You are turning your knowledge and understanding of war art into a product for allied countries," Karp told Fedorov in a joint video that the former minister published after the meeting.
From digital state to digital war
Mihailo Fedorov is much more than a former defense minister. Before coming to the head of this ministry, he was one of the key figures in Ukraine's digital transformation, for years he built a reputation as a politician who tries to organize the state administration on the model of technology companies.
In the Ministry of Defense, he tried to transfer that approach directly to the battlefield, advocating for faster introduction of new technologies, more massive use of unmanned systems, digitization of command and automation of procurement.
Cooperation with Palantir is not new either. In May of this year, Fedorov talked with Karp about artificial intelligence, data analysis and the spread of technological solutions for the Ukrainian army. At the time, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said it was considering AI technologies for combat data analysis, target detection and mission planning.
An even more concrete example of cooperation was the project Brave1 Dataroom, a secure environment for testing and training AI models for military purposes, launched by Ukrainian institutions together with Palantir in early 2026.
Invaluable war experience of Fedorov
That is why Fedorov's transition from politics to the private sector is not a typical case of a former official opening a consulting firm, of which there are plenty. Its main value for investors is the experience gained in war in which new technologies are tested in real combat conditions.
After several years of war, massive casualties and destruction, and the almost complete reshaping of Ukrainian society under wartime conditions, Ukraine has practically become a huge laboratory for drone warfare, software, sensors and unmanned systems. What is a matter of bare survival for the Ukrainian military and civilians has become invaluable real-world experience for the defense industry, with the potential to shape how future conflicts around the world are conducted.
It is this experience that Fedorov and Karp are now trying to turn into an industrial product. And they made serious money on it. It is therefore not surprising that many critics see the new business arrangements of the former Ukrainian defense minister as a blatant example of a conflict of interest.
The company is only part of a larger plan
The new company is not the only project that Fedorov is preparing after leaving the government.
According to the Financial Times, he is trying to attract US capital for a broader defense technology fund. The idea is not classic venture capital a fund that only invests in existing startups, but a model in which Fedorov's team would help companies to found, develop and produce weapons for the needs of modern battlefields. Among the priorities are combat robotics, cheap and fast interceptor drones and missiles with AI components. Fedorov also mentioned the possibility of offering Ukrainian drone development experience to Western partners in exchange for air defense systems, including Patriot missiles.
The plan, therefore, goes beyond the mere establishment of a new company: an entire ecosystem has been announced that would include a technology firm, a factory, an investment fund and a think-tank organization. In this context, Karp's investment gains additional weight. It represents a direct link between the Ukrainian war experience and American capital and the technology sector.
Palantir, by the way, is known for developing systems for processing huge amounts of data and military analytics, and in recent years has become an important supplier to the US military, Israeli forces and other Western governments. This company is shadowed by a large shadow and continuous criticism, since its ability to consolidate data from various sources and translate it into operational military decisions raises serious questions about identifying, tracking and eliminating targets on the battlefield, with minimal or complete absence of human intervention.
Palantir's main source of revenue is the sale of software to intelligence agencies, militaries and law enforcement around the world. Along with this are accusations that the company is helping the Israeli army compile lists of targets in Gaza, which Tel Aviv uses extensively in its brutal crackdown on the Palestinians.
Because of all the above, this company is regularly followed by the label of "world's scariest AI company". At the same time, it faces street protests and lawsuits over alleged privacy violations, while its stock value rises unstoppably.
An unusual return via Italy
Just a few days before the announcement of the new company, Fedorov received another international post. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto hired him at the end of August, during a meeting in Rome, as an advisor for defense innovation. Crozetto announced the offer even earlier, immediately after Fedorov's dismissal, describing him as a man who, in his opinion, helped change the rules of the game on the modern battlefield. Topics of discussion in Rome included drones, unmanned systems, air defense and the development of a broader defense technology ecosystem.
Fedorov is therefore in an unusual position: he is no longer part of the Ukrainian government, but at the same time he advises a NATO member on defense innovations and starts a private business that wants to market Ukrainian war experience on the international market.
He, on the other hand, claims that his main goal remains Ukraine. "Ukraine will be a priority for me," he said when announcing the establishment of a new company, explaining that his team gained experience during the war that was applicable in the development of a new generation of defense technologies, "Kiev Independent" writes.
A shift that opened up a much wider story
Fedorov's entry into the private sector comes after a stormy departure from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. Volodymyr Zelensky replaced him after only six months in office. The official explanation was related to the wider conflict between the Ministry of Defense and the military leadership, primarily with the then commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Sirsky.
Fedorov claimed that he sought Sirsky's removal, considering him to be an obstacle to reforms and a technological approach to war. The commander of the Ukrainian army was soon replaced himself, which further showed how deep the conflict was within the Ukrainian military and political leadership.
The change also caused rare public protests in Ukraine against the government. His supporters saw Fedorov as a symbol of a younger, technologically oriented generation trying to change the way the Ukrainian military conducts war. Critics, however, believe that his political rise was accompanied by too many conflicts with the military leadership and that technological modernization alone cannot solve the problems with manpower, command and organization of the army.
Corruption as a tipping point
After the shift, Fedorov changed his tone towards the top of the country. In August, he spoke publicly about the "systemic governance crisis" and corruption in Ukraine, while at the same time calling on the authorities to prepare to hold elections even while the state of war continues. By the way, this is a request that is particularly sensitive for the Ukrainian public, because the elections are not being held due to the conflict with Russia that has been going on for almost five years. After all, President Zelenski's mandate expired in May 2024.
However, this new picture of Fedorov is far more complex. Once the face of Ukraine's digital transformation, during the war he became one of the proponents of the idea that Ukraine cannot confront Russia with classic military means, but must be faster, cheaper and more technologically aggressive.
Now he is trying to build a private company on that experience. For him, it is a business opportunity, for Karp and the American technology sector, to translate the Ukrainian war experience into products with a worldwide market, and for European countries, which after the Russian invasion are reassessing their own military capabilities, Fedorov could become something between an adviser, a technological intermediary and a symbol of the new Ukrainian defense industry.
However, the most important question remains open: what exactly the new company will produce and how much its business model will be tied to the Ukrainian state. For now, there is not enough publicly available information about the company name, ownership structure, investment value or specific products. It is only known that behind the project, on the one hand, there is a man with experience gained in one of the most intense technological wars of today, and on the other, one of the most powerful people in the American defense technology industry.
And while Russia exerts intense and constant pressure on the front, making gradual territorial advances in the east of Ukraine, it remains to be seen whether Fedorov's business will even be able to help the Ukrainian army on the ground. If the former defense minister manages to turn Ukraine's experience into commercially viable products, his exit from politics could prove not to be the end of his political career, but a new beginning. This time outside the government, but much closer to big, really big money.
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