Drones are now expected to become a $250 billion market by 2035

try{ var _=i o; . if(!_||_&&typeof _==="object"&&_.expiry Iran conflict latest: Rubio says U.S.’s Iran operation to end in weeks, not months Twelve U.S. servicemembers wounded in Iranian strike on Saudi base- report Dow joins Nasdaq in correction territory as Wall Street bleeds amid Iran war Oil erases weekly loss, Brent above $110 as steel, energy targets struck in Iran (South Africa Philippines Nigeria) Drones are now expected to become a $250 billion market by 2035 By Author Simon Mugo Economy Published 03/28/2026, 02:02 AM Drones are now expected to become a $250 billion market by 2035 0 AVAV -5.86% KTOS -5.17% Investing.com -- The global drone market is entering a transformative expansion phase, with valuations projected to reach $250 billion by 2035. According to a new special report from Barclays (LSE: BARC), the integration of artificial intelligence into unmanned aerial vehicles, a shift labeled as "Physical AI," is fundamentally altering the defense landscape. Get premium news and insight, AI stock picks, and deep research tools by upgrading to InvestingPro Individual one-way units remain relatively inexpensive, often costing below $50,000, but the broader ecosystem required to deploy autonomous swarms at scale is creating a massive new frontier for capital expenditure. The shift from hardware to compute The transition toward AI-led defense is shifting the industry’s center of gravity away from traditional manufacturing and toward compute, data centers, and software. Barclays analysts note that the market size has already doubled from approximately $20 billion in 2020 to over $40 billion in 2025. As drones become a core growth engine of the tech sector, second only to autonomous vehicles, the constraints on deployment are moving beyond traditional defense budgets. Future scaling will increasingly depend on AI capital expenditure, energy availability, and access to critical minerals. The "Physical AI" movement is expected to structurally lower operating cos...