硅谷决定打造一只“更好的狗”。新成立的国防科技公司 Warhound 宣布获得 2 亿美元种子轮融资，投资方包括红杉资本，旨在研发经过基因工程改造的军用犬。
Silicon Valley has decided to build a better dog. Warhound, a new defense technology company, has launched with $200 million in seed funding from investors including Sequoia Capital to create dogs genetically engineered for military use.
该公司由安杜里尔和巨石生物合资组建，后者是一家致力于复活猛犸象的生物技术初创企业。Warhound 计划利用巨石生物的基因技术平台和安杜里尔的国防技术，对军用工作犬进行基因改造和克隆。这些本土培育的“超级军犬”将取代目前主要依赖进口的比利时马里努阿犬和德国牧羊犬。美国国防部目前约有 1600 只军用工作犬。若项目成功，这将成为特朗普政府罕见的“制造业回流”胜利。
The company is a collab between Anduril and Colossal Biosciences, the biotech startup looking to bring back the woolly mammoth, and aims to use Colossal’s genetics platform and Anduril’s defense tech to genetically modify and clone military working dogs. The homegrown super-dogs would replace foreign-bred combat and security dogs, primarily Belgian Malinois and German shepherds. The US Department of Defense maintains about 1,600 military working dogs today. If they can pull it off, it’ll be a rare reshoring win for the Trump administration.