Palladyne AI Corp

Palladyne AI Corp. and FANUC America have announced a strategic collaboration to advance intelligent robotic automation, combining FANUC America's industrial robot portfolio with Palladyne AI's physical AI software platform, Palladyne IQ. The partnership aims to simplify deployment, increase adaptability, and expand automation across manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics applications. Key initiatives include optimizing Palladyne IQ on FANUC platforms, developing AI-driven motion planning and adaptive robot behavior, and creating standardized deployment workflows for system integrators and end users. The companies will also focus on teleoperation, human-assisted learning, and simulation to accelerate deployment and validate customer use cases. This collaboration addresses skilled labor shortages and productivity pressures by enabling faster, more intelligent robot deployment and greater return on investment.

Palladyne AI Corp. reaffirmed its full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $24 million to $27 million and reported that backlog rose to $24.6 million at the end of the second quarter, up from $17 million at the end of the first quarter. The company posted record quarterly revenue of approximately $5.8 million, a 63% increase from $3.5 million in the first quarter, with product revenue of $2.7 million, engineering services revenue of $1.9 million, and AI product development contract revenue of $1.2 million. Operating cash burn was $11.1 million for the quarter, and management reiterated full-year operating cash burn guidance of $32 million to $36 million, expecting a decline in the second half. CEO Benjamin Wolff highlighted a follow-on order from a defense prime for more than 1,000 BRAIN FC1 units valued at approximately $2.3 million, five times larger than the prior order, and noted the company secured rights to Americanize and manufacture IAI's HAROP, HARPY and Mini HARPY loitering munitions for the U.S. Department of War, with initial units potentially available in about 18 months once a clear government demand signal emerges. The company ended the quarter with $43.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, and expects a majority of the current backlog to convert to revenue over the next 12 to 18 months.

Palladyne AI rose 4% in premarket trading after securing a $4.2 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop autonomous swarming capabilities across space, air, land and maritime domains using its SwarmOS platform, marking the first integration of satellites into the company's technology. Cloudflare gained 3% after Scotiabank upgraded the cloud networking company to Sector Outperform from Sector Perform and raised its price target to $300 from $225, citing growing adoption of Cloudflare's Workers platform for AI-powered application development. Nvidia slipped 1.6% following a Reuters report that Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is developing its own AI inference chip, a move that could reduce its reliance on processors supplied by Nvidia and Huawei, renewing concerns about rising competition in the fast-growing AI semiconductor market.

Draganfly is positioning itself to benefit from a shift toward secure, domestically produced drones as U.S. government agencies replace Chinese-made systems. The company's portfolio of National Defense Authorization Act-compliant platforms meets federal procurement rules that ban drones from certain Chinese manufacturers due to cybersecurity concerns. Draganfly operates manufacturing and engineering facilities in Canada, which strengthens supply-chain resilience and shortens delivery times for U.S. customers. The company is expanding defense ties, including work with U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command and an AI partnership with Palladyne AI. Draganfly's shares have risen 16.7% over the past three months, and its forward price-to-sales ratio of 0.88 is a discount to the industry average of 2.62.

Palladyne AI Corp. has received two contracts from the U.S. Army to advance its SwarmOS and Gremlin-X autonomous technologies. The projects will evaluate the company's AI-driven systems in military exercises, including Northern Strike 26-2, a major Department of War joint exercise. SwarmOS enables coordinated control of multiple autonomous platforms, while Gremlin-X focuses on reusable strike drone capabilities for challenging environments. The demonstrations aim to validate PDYN's autonomy solutions and support its expansion as a provider of advanced defense technologies. Earlier in June, Northland analyst Michael Latimore raised the price target on PDYN to $15 from $10, citing a new exclusive U.S. manufacturing and distribution partnership for advanced loitering munitions produced by Israel Aerospace Industries as a potential growth catalyst.