Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images.)
Last January, Gov. Mike DeWine took the stage in an airplane hangar outside Columbus touting the “largest job creation and wage generation project in Ohio history.”
Anduril, a defense contractor specializing in autonomous weapons systems, just announced that it will build a recent Arsenal-1 production facility next to Rickenbacker Airport.
DeWine explained that Anduril promised to create more than 4,000 recent jobs with an average salary of $132,000 over the next 10 years, surpassing even the Intel plant in terms of employment.
“The future of American aviation will be made right here in Ohio,” DeWine boasted.
But if this deal is good for Ohio workers and DeWine’s legacy, perhaps it will be even better for one of the candidates to succeed him.
According to his financial disclosures, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has a stake in venture firm 8VC. This company invested in every fundraising round for Anduril.
Governor DeWine makes the largest labor deal in Ohio history at the recent Anduril weapons plant
How Ohio landed on Anduril
To sign the deal with Anduril, Ohio offered the company an incentive package worth more than $830 million. WorkOhio has done $310 million grant and the Ohio Department of Development offered a tax credit worth over $452 million.
Both incentives are tied to Anduril’s employment commitments.
Additionally, the Department of Development placed $70 million towards infrastructure modernization to support the recent Arsenal-1 factory.
“Every time we make a deal,” Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said at an event in Anduril, “it is contingent on a company keeping its word on what it promised. And under no circumstances, including in the case of General Motors, have we been afraid to withdraw any incentives it did not provide in terms of job creation.”
While state officials often withdraw incentives or reduce tax credits, a December report from Ohio Auditor Keith Faber makes clear that this is not the norm.
The review showed that 39 out of 60 companies had defaulted on their contracts in the previous financial year.
Faber found that over the past four years, dozens of companies receiving loans or tax breaks from the Department of Development defaulted on their obligations, but government officials took no action.
In a statement, Department of Development spokesman Mason Waldvogel said the department shares the auditor’s goal of ensuring responsible and clear exploit of public resources, but it should also be noted that this audit only reflects a snapshot in time.
He noted that over the course of several months, the department “modified or rescinded several tax credit agreements that were found to be inconsistent with the regulations in the auditor’s report.”
As a private entity, JobsOhio is under no obligation to publicly disclose the same amount of information.
The organization is slowing down monthly reports detailing the agreements entered into, but explains in a footnote that these obligations “are subject to change depending on possible modifications to the project.”
Although the CEO does not play an explicit role in incentive decisions, he or she is often involved in negotiations with potential high-profile companies.
The governor also has significant opportunities to influence decision-makers. The Director of the Development Department is part of the governor’s office; Governor appoints JobsOhio board members to four-year terms.
If a company the governor favors fails to meet its obligations for any reason – financial, political or otherwise, the governor can influence the state’s response.
Alternatively, the governor could negotiate a longer or more generous contract with such a company.
8VC and Andurila
Anduril operates at the intersection of artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art warfare. The company promises a network of autonomous weapons systems that integrate seamlessly with soldiers on the battlefield.
Perhaps most importantly, Anduril highlights the speed, scale and cost at which they can operate. The company describes legacy defense systems, whose development began during the Cold War, as “exquisite, pricey and sluggish“
Anduril says it is building “cheaper, more autonomous, mass-producible vehicles and weapons.”
The company attracted the interest of the largest venture capital firms in the country.
Founder of Anduril @PalmerLuckey as part of a future public offering
“We will definitely be a listed company. We are running this company in such a way that it will have the shape of a listed company.
“It’s definitely on our agenda.”
By @CNBC pic.twitter.com/oU8KvcUddk
— Jawwn (@jawwn_) June 10, 2025
In 2021, the company described a raise $450 million as part of series D financing. A year later it was introduced $1.48 billion and then raised another one $1.5 billion in 2024
In June last year, the company completed the Series G financing round $2.5 billionand currently aims to bring another $4 billion.
The latest round of fundraising would raise Anduril’s valuation to about $60 billion. In 2021, it was valued at only approx $4.6 billion.
While another infusion of private capital suggests an IPO is not imminent, company leaders have repeatedly said they plan to go public, which likely meant a windfall for investors who went public earlier.
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale founded venture capital firm 8VC in 2015. The company invested in all financing rounds Anduril, and 8VC Lonsdale company biography notes that he was personally an early investor in Anduril.
Ramaswamy’s financial disclosures show that he has an interest in 8VC Fund III, LP, but they say nothing about the current value of that investment.
But federal disclosures about Ramaswamy’s presidential run have shed some more lightweight on his holdings.
When he filed these disclosures in June 2023, the value of Ramaswamy’s stake in 8VC Fund III was between $500,000 and $1 million.
He held between $1 million and $5 million in another fund, also referred to as 8VC Fund V.
This investment does not appear in his more recent Ohio disclosures. In 2023, Ramaswamy also had a callable equity commitment of $50,000 to $100,000 in 8VC Fund III, which does not appear in his current disclosures.
The Ohio Capital Journal asked Ramaswamy’s campaign about his holdings and plans to avoid apparent conflicts of interest while in office. Ramaswamy’s team did not respond.
What is it about?
Critics find Ramaswamy’s ties to a private company receiving nearly $1 billion in state incentives unacceptable.
Ohio Innovation Research Director Terra Goodnight dismissed the financial disclosure as “the most honest thing” for Ramaswamy’s campaign.
“This shows exactly who benefits from his program: himself,” she said.
“Under Ramaswamy’s policies, our tax dollars will line his pockets – that’s just a fact,” she continued. “He likes to pretend to be an outsider, but he’s just another corrupt politician trying to defraud Ohio.”
Cassandra Burke Robertson has a more sophisticated view. A law professor at Case Western Reserve University directs the school’s Center for Professional Conduct.
She explained that conflicts of interest depend on the context. Take, for example, a person who owns shares of an index fund.
“It’s kind of a classic example that you’re generally interested in what the market is doing well, but you’re not affiliated with any particular (company),” Robertson said.
“You are unlikely to make any decision based on the interests of any particular company because your interest is so indirect and diffuse.”
On the other hand, she said, consider a person whose significant portion of net worth and the work of relatives is tied to the family business.
“Then we would expect an ordinary public official not to make decisions that would have an immediate impact on that business one way or another,” she said, “because it would be too hard to put that business off, right?”
Robertson added that “relative value matters.”
A million dollars in the fund would be a huge deal to her and many other Ohioans. But the same amount may not be that significant for a billionaire.
The future value of Anduril may also be essential. Robertson noted that Palantir, another company that borrows its name from The Lord of the Rings, has seen a dramatic boost in value since becoming a publicly traded company.
“So I think there is a possibility that interest, which may seem lower at first glance, may turn out to be greater than it appears,” she said.
Forbes estimates that Ramaswamy’s net worth is around $2.5 billion. He invested at least $1.5 million in 8VC about three years ago.
It is unclear how valuable these resources are today. Moreover, Ramaswamy’s potential stake in Anduril is brokered by 8VC, a fund he does not control. It is also unclear how many shares of 8VC Fund III are in Anduril.
Still, Robertson said it’s reasonable to demand more transparency in these financial relationships.
Robertson explained that a legal ethicist evaluates a potential conflict of interest based on whether a reasonable third party would perceive the conflict.
Without additional information this is not possible. She said the field emphasizes an outside perspective because people tend to believe that their financial interests will not influence their decision-making process.
“People are notoriously bad at judging whether they themselves are in conflict,” Robertson said.
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