The Degenerates of the Drone Stock Bubble

A Ukrainian company that developed software for managing drone swarms considered working with Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, but received warnings that collaboration could harm the business. Prince has been linked to major national security controversies, including the 2007 Nisour Square Massacre and later involvement in investigations tied to President Donald Trump and Russia. He has continued private military work, including ventures involving armed drones, and became non-executive chairman of Swarmer, a drone-swarm software firm that debuted on the U.S. stock market. The company’s value surged more than 1,200% shortly after listing, amid heightened U.S. military activity and growing drone warfare. The firm claims its technology has been used in over 100,000 combat missions, while sales remain limited and revenue declined before going public.

"Late last summer, the founders of a small company in Ukraine that made software to manage swarms of drones were weighing whether to work with Erik Prince, the founder of the mercenary firm Blackwater. "Erik Prince is fucking cruising around telling everybody that he's going to take them big time and he's best friends with Trump and Hegseth and all these people and he wants to invest," recalled an individual who spoke with the founders and advised them against collaboration. "You're bringing in a guy who's going to bring about the downfall of your company.""

"In the past, Prince has been the Forrest Gump of national security scandals, from the infamous 2007 Nisour Square Massacre in Iraq, when Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians, to the FBI investigation of President Donald Trump's ties to Russia, which involved Prince acting as a mediator with a Kremlin representative. More recently, he's been spotted at Mar-a-Lago and has continued to work in the private military business, which includes deploying armed drones as part of his latest venture. In March, the software company Swarmer debuted on the U.S. stock market with Prince as its non-executive chairman."

"The previously unknown company skyrocketed in value in its first days of trading, rising more than 1,200 percent for a market capitalization of around $800 million. The timing was fortuitous. Its stock-market debut took place just weeks after the start of U.S. military operations against Iran, the latest conflict to underscore the growing prevalence of drone warfare. And Swarmer's technology was rumored to be involved in Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine's June 2025 drone attack inside Russia that destroyed dozens of Moscow's warplanes."

"Officially, though, the company only admits its products have been used in "more than 100,000 real-world missions in active combat environments." The problem? Swarmer has limited sales and its revenue actually dropped in the year before going public, from a p"

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