Salesforce to buy defense AI startup Rune

Salesforce has agreed to acquire Rune Technologies, a Washington, D.C.-based startup that builds AI software for military logistics, in a deal valued at about $375 million in cash and stock. Salesforce signed a definitive agreement on October 29, 2026 and expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2027, a period that ends January 31, 2027, subject to customary closing conditions. Rune will be integrated into Missionforce, Salesforce’s business unit focused on national security and defense agencies. Salesforce has not formally disclosed the purchase price; it was reported to be $375 million.

The acquisition adds to a run of deals at Salesforce this year. The company has agreed to buy Fin, an AI agent platform, for $3.6 billion and Qualified, a revenue operations platform, for $1.2 billion, alongside other smaller transactions such as Listen Labs. The Rune transaction stands out as Salesforce’s most significant national security-focused acquisition to date.

Rune’s core product, TyrOS, is an edge-first logistics platform designed for denied, degraded, intermittent or limited connectivity environments. The software forecasts demand and resupply, recommends allocation and transport routing, and allows units to test logistics plans before committing, while continuing to function with little or no network and syncing data when connectivity returns. Rune has also released Saga, an AI logistics planning tool built on TyrOS, and an Autonomy Development Kit for tasking autonomous systems.

Rune was founded in 2024 by David Tuttle and Peter Goldsborough, both former Anduril executives. The company has raised about $30 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Point72 Ventures, IQT and Human Capital, and carried a $127 million valuation in its Series A round. A roughly $375 million offer represents close to three times that valuation. Rune operates with a five-year, $99 million Army IDIQ vehicle that allows Army organizations and certain partners to procure TyrOS and related services through task orders.

Missionforce, launched in 2025, is Salesforce’s national security unit and has reportedly been growing about 80% year over year. The unit focuses on personnel, logistics and decision-making, initially centering on back-office administration, record keeping and strategic planning. Rune fills what Salesforce describes as the Operational Edge layer in an “edge-to-enterprise” architecture, complementing Missionforce’s coverage of enterprise systems of record and a Strategic HQ layer.

Salesforce’s defense business is anchored by a 10-year Army IDIQ contract with a $5.6 billion ceiling, run through subsidiary Computable Insights LLC. The ceiling is not a guaranteed purchase amount, but logistics is among the listed use cases. The Rune acquisition is intended to extend Missionforce from back-office and planning functions into battlefield supply chain operations, with Rune’s frontline logistics data helping to connect tactical decisions to enterprise records.

Salesforce describes Rune as its “most significant national security-focused acquisition” and emphasizes integration between TyrOS and its existing systems. Units that run TyrOS in the field and Salesforce in garrison currently manage separate data models. Salesforce says that, after integration, edge decisions generated by Rune will flow into enterprise systems of record without custom integration, keeping personnel, maintenance and sustainment data aligned across garrison, forward-deployed and emissions-controlled environments.

For defense buyers, some contractual details remain unresolved. Salesforce has not said whether Rune will remain a separate legal entity after closing or whether its $99 million Army IDIQ will continue as the primary ordering vehicle for TyrOS alongside Salesforce’s $5.6 billion Army contract. The company has referred only to customary closing conditions, leaving the future ordering path and contract novation questions open as the deal moves toward completion.