Anduril Industries—Anduril granted legislative monopoly on US border surveillance towers via Big Beautiful Bill
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Trump on July 4, 2025, includes provisions that effectively grant Anduril Industries a monopoly on new autonomous surveillance towers for US Customs and Border Protection across both southern and northern borders. CBP confirmed to The Intercept that Anduril is now the country's only approved border tower vendor. Anduril's ASTs cover an estimated 30% of the US southern land border, using AI and computer vision to detect, identify, classify, and track people crossing the border. Civil liberties groups have raised concerns about the humanitarian impact of automated border surveillance.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surveillance Technology | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| User Privacy | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.858 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (1 signal)
The Intercept reported Anduril is now sole approved border surveillance tower vendor under Big Beautiful Bill
The Intercept reported that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes a section granting Anduril a monopoly on new surveillance towers for US Customs and Border Protection. CBP confirmed to The Intercept that Anduril is the only approved border tower vendor under the new law, which provides over $6 billion for border security technologies.