Zipline has raised $1.5 billion at a $21.5 billion valuation to build a nationwide U.S. drone delivery network, turning years of autonomous flight experience into a much bigger push for everyday retail and food orders.
The round was led by Paradigm, WCM Investment Management and Layer Global. Uber, Fidelity, Tiger Global, J.P. Morgan, ARK Invest and Salesforce Ventures were among the investors. Zipline plans to expand U.S. manufacturing and hiring.
Walmart and Uber Give It Reach
Walmart and Zipline have agreed to add 300 sites under a multiyear U.S. partnership, with room to grow further. Uber is targeting one million Zipline deliveries per day by 2029, a goal rather than a current operating rate.
Those partnerships matter because drone logistics requires more than aircraft. It needs launch sites, participating merchants, software integration and enough orders in each neighborhood to make frequent flights useful.
A Faster Delivery Model
Zipline says it completed more than one million deliveries in the Dallas–Fort Worth area during 2026. In October, the median order arrived 19 minutes after checkout, compared with more than 30 minutes for traditional delivery, according to the company.
Among a group of longer-running restaurant partners, Zipline’s share of delivery revenue rose from 10.8% in March to 34.9% in October. Those restaurants reported 26% growth in delivery gross merchandise value, with Zipline accounting for most of the increase.
From Healthcare to Mainstream Commerce
Zipline first built its network around medical deliveries and says it has now flown 150 million commercial autonomous miles. Its next-generation aircraft is designed to fly higher and quieter while carrying heavier orders over longer distances.
The latest funding gives Zipline room to build manufacturing capacity, but the national rollout still has to prove itself neighborhood by neighborhood. The hard part is no longer showing that a drone can deliver dinner. It is building enough local demand to keep the network busy.
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