Ghost Robotics’ crouching mechanical dog kicked off The Drones & Robotics AI Summit last month at Pillsbury’s New York offices. Watching CEO Gavin Kenneally present the company‘s Vision 60 system and hearing about its hundreds of deployments with the U.S. military, everyone in the packed house buzzed with excitement.

Physical AI has finally come of age. According to most estimates, venture and private equity investments in the space have exceeded $30 billion in the past 12 months, more than double last year’s activity. A lot has changed in the year since hosting the last summit: humanoid buzz, OpenClaw, and now autonomous weapons are reshaping warfare across the Middle East and Europe.

The opportunities will only be amplified with advances in generative AI and the promise of quantum computing.

Gavin Kenneally, CEO of Ghost Robotics, demonstrated the Vision 60 robotic dog at The Drones & Robotics AI Summit last month in New York. Credit: Mara Zalite

Heven AeroTech founder recounts journey to ‘unicorn’ status

After the event, I met with Bentzion Levinson, founder and CEO of Heven AeroTech, in Jerusalem, between sirens warning of Iranian ballistic missiles. During our hour-long (alert-free) meeting, he shared with me the early days of his uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) company’s journey to become Israel’s latest unicorn startup.

One of the biggest takeaways from our meeting was his adoption of quantum computing to advance sensing data as part of a wider partnership with IonQ, Heven’s largest outside shareholder. Levinson explained the evolution of his company and its commitment to solving real problems for warfighters everywhere.

“And after my [military] service, I left as a combat commander,” he recalled. “I volunteered for a national project. And through this project, I realized that drones are amazing. They have amazing potential, but almost all drones in the market were flying cameras or flying sensors, a lot of them out of China back in the day and still today.”

It was 2018, and the Israeli border with Gaza was being terrorized by kite and balloon fires. Levinson rose to the task of using drones to autonomously identify and rapidly extinguish the threats.

“We used drones at first to identify fires and then to put out fires,” he said. “And that’s how we transitioned from flying cameras to flying robots.”

This revelation of the wider opportunities moving from sensing data to acting on it with UAVs gave birth to his billion-dollar idea.

Nathaniel Bazydlo of NUAIR, Jeff Causey of Causey Aviation, Greg James of DroneUp, and Jodi Goldberg of Pillsbury discussed the regulatory environment for UAVs in New York. Credit: Mara Zalite

Drone startup identified two use cases

From this early experience, Levinson identified two distinct use cases: response times and mission payloads.

“One of them is what we call more tactical, and this is true for both defense and commercial use cases,” he continued, citing examples from his experience. “If you want to do a mission like putting out a fire, you’re not going very far. It’s just that if you can get there within a few minutes, you can make a big difference.”

“But say you want to go within a 10-mile radius, with the emphasis on heavy payloads,” said Levinson. “So that is the other use case, where the focus is more on handling heavy payloads and ensuring stability for their use. We don’t know exactly what the payloads will be, but we have to be able to support customers. That’s when we also realized that a lot of the use cases are going to be more long-range.”

From batteries to hydrogen-powered UAVs

While working with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the former soldier experienced these challenges firsthand and set out to fill the market gap with his current hydrogen-powered UAV.

“If you want to do short-range missions, then batteries are great. But if you want to do long-range missions, batteries don’t have the energy density to get you there,” explained Levinson. “So, traditionally, drones would use combustion or jet-powered systems. The problem is that these systems have significant thermal signatures that can be identified. They have a significant noise signature.”

“You have to start getting fuel around these; they make them basically irrelevant for most defense use cases and very challenging for commercial use,” he added. “Imagine, wherever you’re sitting today, 100 flying lawn mowers outside, or flying jets. We all know what it sounds like to have a plane flying over you. So planes or drones with combustion or jet engines can’t really scale in the commercial environment either, and that’s what led us to hydrogen fuel cells.”

“So our first product line is heavy-lift, battery-powered drones can carry up to 100 pounds of payload and perform a variety of missions, really continuing the initial idea we had,” Levinson said. “And the second one is more focused on long-range stealth operations that we pioneered over the past five to six years, with a focus on hydrogen fuel cells. And today we have refueling stations too. We are working very closely as the only approved hydrogen drone for long endurance, self-driven, for the U.S. government and Israel.”

Justin Rubin of Pillsbury (right) hosted Douglas Bush, former assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics, and technology (left), to advise startups on DoW purchasing requirements. Credit: Mara Zalite

IonQ supports Heven move to quantum computing

In November 2025, IonQ led a $100 million Series B investment in Heven as part of a technology partnership. In the words of Niccolo de Masi, chairman and CEO of IonQ, “By integrating IonQ’s world-leading quantum technologies, Heven AeroTech will deliver a new class of unparalleled UAS capabilities. This partnership positions Heven’s drones to tackle missions no other player can with unmatched precision, resilience, and security.”

Levinson unpacked the IonQ relationship further and the types of new innovations he is currently implementing with quantum computing.

“End of last year, we did a big round, at a billion-dollar valuation, with a public company, IonQ, a leader in the quantum ecosystem. It was to support our growth, including investments in additional technologies, such as quantum technologies,” he said. “So since then, we’ve really focused on production. We are launching a very large, significant facility that’ll be both a gigafactory for drones and an innovation center.”

He added that this gigafactory will be in Virginia because its customer base is primarily in the Washington, D.C., area. Heven’s founder excitedly illustrated how quantum is like GenAI on steroids for autonomy.

“So the drone platforms are only as good as what they can do on a mission. There are multiple mission profiles,” said Levinson. “And in our case, it’s even more challenging because if you’re working on a battlefield and you’re above the ocean, navigating and knowing where you are without GPS is very difficult.”

“This ability to communicate brought our research teams to quantum technologies, not necessarily quantum computing, but quantum sensing for navigation and quantum networking technologies for communications,” he said. “These solutions basically enable us to navigate and communicate anywhere in the world without any GPS or a signature.”

The drone pioneer continued: “So there are other ways of doing navigation, for example, doing vision-based navigation, where you look at the ground, and you can know where you are with very advanced software, but it doesn’t work above the ocean. Some companies have been using fiber-optic connections on drones, especially small drones, to communicate and navigate, but again, those systems don’t work over hundreds of miles. And that’s what brought us to navigation using quantum sensors and very advanced quantum clocks. ”

A packed house listens to the defense tech panel of David Skinner of Griffiss Institute, Bentzion Levinson of Heven Aero, David Franco of Wild West Systems, and Ryan Eppley of Root Access. Credit: Mara Zalite

Networking and sensors solidify IonQ position

In September 2025, shortly before its investment in Heven, IonQ acquired Vector Atomic, which claimed to be a leader in advanced quantum sensors for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) applications. Vector said it had more than $200 million in government contracts related to national security.

The company also stated that its technology portfolio included “high-performance clocks, synchronization hardware, gravimeters, and inertial sensors, further establishing IonQ as the only quantum company integrating advanced computing, networking, and sensing capabilities within a single platform.”

IonQ asserted that its acquisition of Vector solidified its market position, enabling it to compete in the growing quantum sensing and navigation arena, which includes such leading tech providers as SandboxAQ, Q-CTRL, Infleqtion, Lockheed, and RTX.

“We are working with IonQ, which is the largest standard on quantum in the world today,” said Levinson. “And we are working together to make these systems lightweight and fit for drone applications.”

After explaining how quantum can work in GPS-denied environments, he added that it can serve as a stealthy long-range communication platform.

“The other piece is communication, so short-range communication, there are different levels, also challenged by jamming,” Levinson said. “We have satellite communication, Starlink, and others. The challenge is that a lot of the stuff out there leaves signatures that can identify where a drone is flying.”

“So quantum networking technology, which involves multiple quantum sensors communicating with each other, can enable these systems to communicate without any signatures,” he elaborated. “You can identify where it’s coming from, and it’s basically unjammable.”

The entrepreneur summed up Heven’s relationship with IonQ: “They also led our recent funding round, which tells a bit about the closeness and the importance of our partnership. But we think these are important to ensuring drones in future conflicts actually work. The way I think about it is if our drones can navigate where they are and communicate so our adversaries don’t detect them, that’s a game-changing scenario.”

This benefit is amplified by the cost savings of using Heven’s platform, which is amplified by quantum-enabled sensors.

“We’re usually about 5% of what a traditional military drone would cost,” said Levinson. “Our drones are multi-use, so the value you get for flight hours is obviously significantly higher than those [single-use drones]. And we use these systems as mother ships, for example, to launch a variety of capabilities, from heavy-lift, long-endurance, quantum-enabled drones. So again, we’re a fraction of the price of traditional alternatives.”

Matthew Walsh of Waymo and Lydon Sleeper of Joby Aviation discuss the challenges of launching urban autonomous systems. Credit: Mara Zalite

Competition will come for hydrogen-powered defense drones

From a competitive standpoint, Heven is currently operating in open skies. While companies like Doosan have hydrogen UAVs, and Elroy and Sabrewing manufacture hybrids, Levinson said no one else today is offering the combination of long-haul missions with heavy payloads, without signatures in GPS-denied environments.

However, on the horizon, it is important to recognize that Shield AI, AeroVironment, Kaman, and upstarts will eventually launch in this growing defense-tech industry and contest Heven for market share. Long-term, their quantum edge with IonQ could become their deepest moat to protect the castle.

“We’ve kind of been the pioneers and have a really good advantage. Again, it’s five to six years of solving many different parts of the components,” said Levinson. “We expect more of the market to get in this wave. We have a very significant position on the IP and patent sides, as well as in practical partnerships and technology. So I think we have good positioning today. So we’re really working hard to get to scale and get to the field at scale, and are really solid about our position as the market leader in the space.”

Physical AI panel with Erik Nieves of Plus One Robotics, Rosalind Shinkle of Tuesday’s Lab, Nadav Orbach of RealSense, Duncan McIntyre of FieldAI, and Adam Hopkins of Sensetics. Credit: Mara Zalite

Last month, Kara Jones, and Rebecca Breeden, and I organized our annual Drones & Robotics AI Summit 2026. A special thank you to all the presenters, participants, attendees, and, of course, our partners: GENIUS NY, ff Venture Capital, Arkenstone Capital, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Evercore, NUAIR, Samson Rose, HAUS, Punch Financial, Qapita, and AUVSI Empire State Chapter.

Speakers included Jeff Burnstein, Matthew Walsh, Erik Nieves, Rosalind Shinkle, Nadav Orbach, Duncan McIntyre, Adam Hopkins, Ben Verschueren, Joe Jones, Bentzion Levinson, Ryan Eppley, Jacob Andreesen, and the GNY cohorts. For more info, listen to the Machine Minds Podcast.

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