For years, Will Somerindyke sold weapons of war around the world: artillery shells to Ukraine, grenades to U.S.-backed rebels in Syria. With relationships with dozens of top military buyers, he quickly turned his company Regulus Global into one of America’s major international arms dealers. Now, as Silicon Valley investors swarm to back multi-billion dollar defense startups with increasing fervor, Somerindyke is looking to make the jump from munitions middleman to manufacturer. He’s been quietly working on Union, a new venture-backed startup he claims will modernize ammunition factories with autonomous robotics and precision machining. “I’ve been through a lot in 18 years in this space,” Somerindyke told Forbes. “If Union does its job correctly, we will be building millions of square feet of facilities with the ability to make a wide range of defense products.” Union, which Somerindyke leads as CEO, appears to have made a solid start. In April it secured a massive $50 million seed funding round led by Bravo Victor Venture Capital, or BVVC. Other investors include Silent Ventures, IronGate, and RKKVC, a Poland-based single-family office. It plans to open its first artillery shell factory in Texas next month. And it recently secured a contract to sell those shells, which, if fulfilled, could bring in up to $225 million, according to Somerindyke. But instead of approaching the problem with old-school manufacturing, Somerindyke and Musselman, who met more than a decade ago through a program for veterans, saw an opportunity to modernize weapons manufacturing, are using Silicon Valley software talent to implement autonomous systems. Since incorporating in October, Union has hired a suite of engineers from Tesla, SpaceX and Anduril....

Elon Musk fired Tesla’s head of operations in North America and Europe, amid declining sales in both regions and the electric vehicle brand’s falling popularity, according to people familiar with the matter. Omead Afshar, who started with Tesla as an engineer in 2017, had become one of Musk’s top lieutenants and was elevated to vice president to oversee business in the two key regions last October. He didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did Musk or Tesla. Afshar’s removal comes a few days before the end of the second quarter and follows news that Tesla’s EV sales dropped for a fifth consecutive month in Europe. U.S. sales are also down this year and China, the Austin-based company’s top market, saw a 15% drop in May. Equity analysts are anticipating a decline in Tesla’s EV deliveries of at least 10% worldwide in the quarter that ends on June 30, to about 392,800 units compared with 443,956 a year ago. Musk’s close affiliation with and massive financial support for President Donald Trump have negatively impacted the Tesla brand, particularly during his stint running the federal job-slashing DOGE initiative. The company desperately needs to improve its lineup, following the failure of the much-derided Cybertruck to hit volume goals Musk laid out for it, and figure out how to compete with fast-rising Chinese rivals. But rather than add new electric models to boost sales, the world’s wealthiest person has sought to convince investors that the company’s future lies with a new robotaxi service, humanoid robots and AI. It’s a tricky pivot since electric cars, batteries and charging services account for virtually all of...