Axon Invests Another $1.2B in Skydio, Ring Unveils Drone Cam, Nampa Asks Amazon for Data

This week's drone industry roundup covers three stories: a new $1.2 billion investment by Axon, the US maker of Taser devices and police body cameras, in drone manufacturer Skydio; the launch of the first drone camera from Ring, a company owned by Amazon; and a request from the Idaho city of Nampa for Amazon to hand over data on its delivery drone flights.

Axon and Skydio

The investment is a mix of cash and Axon stock. It adds about 20% to Axon's fully diluted ownership, based on a $5.2 billion pre-money valuation of Skydio. Axon becomes the exclusive distributor of Skydio drones for public safety customers in the United States and Canada, while Skydio keeps selling to other industries itself.

The move strengthens "drone as first responder" (DFR) technology, in which a drone sits in a dock and launches automatically on an emergency call. The announcement says the drone reaches the scene before officers in about 80% of calls and cuts priority response time by up to 65%. Skydio cites more than 1,500 public safety customers and expects $1 billion in bookings this fiscal year. The deal is expected to close in late 2026 or early 2027. It is unclear what happens to Skydio's existing public safety resellers.

Ring's drone camera

The Ring Drone Cam is a 165-gram indoor security camera priced at $249, due to ship on January 27, 2027. Ring showed a similar idea, the Always Home Cam, as a concept in 2020, but it never shipped. The new version shifts much of the processing to the cloud, which lowers the price but requires an internet connection. Flight time is 5 to 8 minutes, and each minute in the air needs about 8 minutes of charging in the dock. It records 2K video and maps the home. It needs no FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) authorization for indoor flight, but it does need FCC (Federal Communications Commission) authorization. Since December 22, 2025, new authorizations for foreign-produced drones and critical components have been blocked unless an exemption applies. Ring says the drone is assembled in the US and complies, but information on where the parts come from could not be found.

Nampa and Amazon

Amazon Prime Air delivery drones began flying over Nampa on October 30. The city has received about 20 to 25 emails and calls with complaints, mostly about noise; some residents say they hear the drones indoors with windows closed. City staff have observed the drones themselves. Nampa issued Amazon a conditional use permit for its launch pad; the commission approved it 6 to 1 in May, and the planning director said then that it can be revoked. The city has not said Amazon broke any terms. Residents can complain to Amazon or to the FAA's noise complaint portal.