Defense technology company Thales Group, France, announced that it will acquire a 35.51% controlling stake in industrial tech and maritime drone maker Exail Technologies, with future plans to purchase 100% of Exail by 2028. The current owner of the controlling stake is the Gorgé Group, France. Thales has said it will pay US$153 per share, which values Exail at US$4.45 billion. The offer outcompeted one from Safran, France, which had previously been in private negotiations with Exail.

Better together

Exail was formed in 2022 by the merger of two France-based companies: the robotics and engineering firm ECA Group, a Gorgé subsidiary, and photonics company iXBlue. Since then, Exail has partnered with both public and private groups in more than 80 countries, working on robotics, photonics, aerospace technologies, deep-sea navigation and autonomous demining solutions. In 2024, Exail agreed to provide space-grade optical components to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the laser-ranging interferometer of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity (GRACE-C) mission—a US$1.2 million contract. In 2025, Exail acquired France-based laser manufacturer Leukos—a move aimed at helping  the company expand into the biophotonics and microelectronics markets.

Now, Thales says the acquisition of Exail will increase its presence in the underwater defense market and enable it to offer its customers integrated solutions, from components to systems. The company also says that Exail’s expertise will help it grow its work with inertial navigation systems through the combination of the two group’s complementary technologies—Thales’ Ring-Laser Gyroscope and Exail’s Fiber Optic Gyroscope (FOG).

Thales says the acquisition of Exail will increase its presence in the underwater defense market and enable it to offer its customers integrated solutions.

Exail’s FOG is a solid-state passive system based on the Sagnac effect that leverages light to calculate motion. Changes in the gyroscope’s orientation are detected by measuring the phase shift between two identical laser beams sent through a fiber optic cable in opposite directions. Exail claims that the device, which has no moving mechanical parts, is robust, is low cost compared with similar technologies, has acoustic stealth and is resistant to external disruptions, which the company says makes it ideal for operating in extreme environments.

“With this acquisition, Thales and Exail plan to join forces,” said Thales CEO Patrice Caine. “Together, thanks to our talents and capabilities, we will strengthen our high-technology industrial base and innovation for our world-class defense and civil customers, while reinforcing Europe’s technological sovereignty.”

A growing market

The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2027, comes as Thales plans to accelerate the development of its underwater drone mine-countermeasure solutions. Both Thales and Exail predicted in a press conference that the market addressing anti-submarine warfare will grow from €85 billion in 2025 to €700 billion by 2030, a tenfold increase. “The market we’re targeting isn’t that of mine warfare, ​it’s more generally that of robotic underwater operations,” said Caine.

Thales isn’t the only group bolstering its drone products. According to Reuters, global conflicts are prompting defense companies across Europe to do the same, citing traditional weapons maker Rheinmetall, Germany, as having signed a number of agreements to that effect. The stock market has also reflecting a general surge in shares of drone makers like Exail and Exosens as military strategy turns toward deploying swarms of low-cost drones.