The Initial Public Offering (IPO) saw the company reach a market capitalization of approximately €35 billion ($35.22 billion) following a surge in share price during its trading debut. This valuation positions CSG as a leading global defense player, surpassing established national entities like the Czech utility CEZ. The primary objectives of the listing are to capitalize on the global surge in military spending and to establish a liquid equity "currency" for future acquisitions. Driven by its role as a key supplier to Ukraine and its recent $2.2 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Kinetic, CS…

1.0 Introduction: The Sovereign AI Challenger Narrative This comparison, while sparking both excitement and scrutiny, highlights a significant strategic ambition within the United Kingdom: to forge a sovereign artificial intelligence capability that can rival the dominance of established US technology giants in critical national security domains. This document provides an objective comparison of the two companies, analysing their respective market positions, core offerings, strategic advantages, and the distinct challenges they face.

The three hubs will address the growing demand for UK-based IT delivery, data hosting and resiliency for public sector, defence and critical national infrastructure (CNI) businesses. The Sovereign Orchestration Hub will be a state-of-the-art, sustainably built delivery centre. It will leverage Atos’ 30 years of engineering heritage to provide an AI-enabled suite of offerings that build upon its existing sovereign capabilities, including the Atos Sovereign Cloud portfolio.

It comes as Defence Secretary John Healey confirms, for the first time, that £600 million has been invested by the UK this year to accelerate drone delivery for Ukraine’s Armed Forces, including tens of thousands of short-range first-person view (FPV) drones that are crucial to supporting Ukraine’s front line.   These drones are being used for precision strikes, reconnaissance, and disrupting Russian activity behind the frontlines, countering Russia’s own attempts at massed drone tactics. 

The project's central goal is to operationalise the UK’s information advantage by developing capabilities to counter disinformation, digital vulnerabilities, and narrative manipulation.

Braden-Astbury, who joins from Securitas Technology, has been brought on to scale the company’s operations and meet the escalating demand for its secure AI platform in critical sectors.

The initiative is designed to enhance the UK's information integrity and resilience against information warfare, directly addressing strategic national security concerns. The project will be built on Google Distributed Cloud's air-gapped platform, ensuring the highest levels of data residency and security by operating completely disconnected from the internet. Co-development with UK SME Whitespace embeds sovereign standards from the outset. Project Ixian represents the first product in a planned pipeline from Defence Holdings and is explicitly aligned with the critical focus areas of the UK’s…

The company asserts that this technology addresses a critical operational gap for UK and allied forces, aligning with NATO priorities and the UK Strategic Defence Review 2025 by extending the value of existing hardware fleets. The announcement highlights that the product, like the previous Project Ixian, demonstrates the repeatability of Defence Holdings' sovereign AI model and its capacity to rapidly develop solutions for high-priority defence needs.

Defence Holdings PLC (LSE: ALRT), the UK's first listed software-led defence company, today confirms it will host the live broadcast of an interview with its incoming Non-Executive Chairman, Field Marshal Lord Houghton of Richmond. This will be Lord Houghton's first public interview since his appointment and is scheduled for Friday, 3 October 2025, at 10:00am UK time.