The NSO Group founder just raised $260M to sell governments AI they actually control

The man who built Pegasus spyware just raised $260M at a $3 billion valuation.

Not for more surveillance. For sovereign AI that governments own.

Shalev Hulio co-founded NSO Group, built the most controversial spyware on earth, and watched it get sanctioned by the US government.

Now he's selling nations something different: AI infrastructure that runs entirely under their control.

Dream raised $260M in a round co-led by Bicycle Capital and Group 11. Total funding is now $412 million.

The company has already locked in $300M in government contracts across Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia since going commercial in late 2024.

Three products: Sphere for national cyber defense, Hero as an autonomous AI security researcher, and Atlas for sovereign AI that connects fragmented government data.

Hulio told Reuters his team has prevented major cyber attacks from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz co-founded the company and sits as president.

The valuation tripled from $1B to $3B in four months.

This is the new geopolitics of AI. Nations are done trusting foreign cloud providers with their most sensitive systems.

If your enterprise sells to government or operates critical infrastructure, sovereign AI is no longer optional.

Audit where your AI dependencies sit today. Foreign cloud, foreign model, foreign control is a liability your board will answer for.

SOURCE: https://www.securityweek.com/dream-raises-260-million-at-3-billion-valuation/

VERIFIED: SecurityWeek, The National, Reuters, PR Newswire, The Next Web

SIGNAL: Sovereign AI is becoming a multi-billion dollar market as governments reject foreign AI dependency. The ex-NSO founder pivoting from offensive spyware to defensive sovereign AI signals a permanent shift in how nations approach AI infrastructure.