Ex-Palantir founders raise $50M for Valarian's sovereign AI cloud software

Valarian, a London-based startup founded by former Palantir executives, has reportedly raised a $50 million Series A led by US venture firm NEA, according to reporting published July 13, 2026.

The round, which reportedly takes Valarian’s total funding to $70 million, is described as NEA’s first defense or dual-use investment in Europe — a signal that US venture money is chasing the market for sovereign infrastructure.

Valarian, co-founded by Max Buchan and Josh McLaughlin, builds software called ACRA that lets governments and enterprises run AI workloads on US cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, while keeping control over what data leaves, who can access it and who can switch it off. The pitch targets buyers who want the scale of American clouds without ceding control of sensitive data.

Buchan said infrastructure sovereignty went from an abstract policy debate to ‘a live emergency’ after the Trump administration cut off Anthropic’s access abroad earlier in 2026, a move that showed foreign customers how quickly access to a US AI provider can be revoked.

Valarian has not published its own announcement of the round, and the details rest on outlet reporting rather than a company statement. The financing terms, and whether the funding closed on the reported dates, could not be confirmed against a first-party filing.

The test now is commercial: whether ACRA converts sovereignty anxiety into signed government and enterprise contracts, or stays a well-funded pitch.