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From humanitarian aid to own defense business
According to Forbes Ukraine, the estimated amount of Eric Schmidt's investments in Ukraine is about $400 million. This assessment was voiced by a Ukrainian entrepreneur familiar with the activities of the Google explorer. At the same time, it is not specified whether this sum includes only the financing of defense developments, or also humanitarian projects, investments in funds and other assets.
After the full-scale invasion began, Schmidt sacrificed $2 million for humanitarian aid to Ukraine. As early as 2023, he regularly visited the country, met with the military, weapons manufacturers, visited training grounds and frontline regions. Initially, the investor considered the possibility of investing in Ukrainian defense companies, but later decided to create his own business in the field of military technology.
Perennial Autonomy and support of Ukrainian Defense Tech
In 2025, several Schmidt defense projects were united under the brand Perennial Autonomy. According to Forbes Ukraine, the company's Ukrainian team already includes several hundred specialists working on the development of modern unmanned systems.
Eric Schmidt is also associated with the foundation D3 (Dare to Defend Democracy), which has been operating in Ukraine since the summer of 2023 and invests in defense startups. Together with other partners, he invested more than $10 million. D3 funds developments in the fields of drones, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and secure communications, helping Ukrainian teams to attract professional capital and scale their own technologies.