Dream, a sovereign AI and national cyber defence company serving governments and critical infrastructure, has raised $260m in a new funding round, lifting its valuation to $3bn just three years after it was established.
The round was co-led by Bicycle Capital and Group 11, with Antler, Bain Capital Ventures, Tru Arrow Partners and a broader group of international investors also participating. The raise takes Dream’s total contract value to nearly $300m since it began commercial operations in late 2024. The newly secured capital will be directed towards accelerating the rollout of Dream’s sovereign AI and national cyber defence platforms across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas.
Dream argues that while governments have historically invested in physical infrastructure such as roads, power grids and communications networks, artificial intelligence is becoming the next foundational layer of national power. The company identifies a critical vulnerability: most governments are dependent on AI systems built and controlled by foreign companies, leaving them exposed to technology that could be restricted or withdrawn. At the same time, national data remains fragmented across ministries, agencies and critical infrastructure operators, limiting governments’ ability to act on it strategically.
To address this, Dream has built three platforms. Sphere is designed to defend governments and critical infrastructure operators against nation-state level cyber threats, combining cyber intelligence, exposure management, attack path analysis, digital twin technology and AI-powered detection and response within a single national cyber defence system.
Hero operates as an autonomous AI security researcher, continuously identifying vulnerabilities and simulating adversarial behaviour at machine speed to surface weaknesses before attackers can exploit them. Atlas is Dream’s sovereign AI platform, enabling governments to unify fragmented national data, build structured knowledge bases, deploy mission-specific AI agents and generate insights entirely within secure, government-controlled environments.
Dream co-founder and CEO Shalev Hulio said, “Land created empires. Industry created nations. Artificial intelligence will create the next super nations. Every nation has data. Few can protect it. Fewer can use it. Sovereign AI is the key. We built Dream to help governments secure their information, transform it into knowledge, and convert that knowledge into national capability. The future of a nation should never depend on technology it does not control.”
Dream president and co-founder Sebastian Kurz, the former chancellor of Austria, said, “The defining question for governments is no longer whether they will use AI, but whether they will own it. Nations that want to control their future need the ability to operate advanced AI under their own authority, on infrastructure they govern, and in alignment with their own interests.
“Sovereign AI is becoming a foundational layer of national resilience, competitiveness, and security. Countries that build and control their own AI capabilities will be better positioned to protect critical infrastructure, strengthen public services, improve decision-making, and safeguard their national interests.”
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