America’s skies are filling with drones that deliver packages, inspect power lines, and patrol borders. Yet the backbone behind those flights remains a patchwork of hardware, software, and outsourcing that leaves critical infrastructure exposed to risk. In this landscape, ZenaTech, Inc. is pursuing a bold pivot from hardware sales to a comprehensive drone as a service (DaaS) platform designed to make aerial capabilities autonomous, auditable, and scalable.

Drone as a Service: ZenaTech’s Path to Autonomous Infrastructure

Founded in 2017, ZenaTech is reshaping the drone value chain by fusing AI, enterprise software, and in-house manufacturing into a single platform. Rather than selling drones outright, the company offers on-demand missions for surveying, inspection, and maintenance—turning large capital expenditures into predictable operating expenses. The approach aims to expand access to advanced capabilities for sectors ranging from agriculture and logistics to defense and environmental monitoring.

According to MENAFN, ZenaTech has surged in scale this year, reporting a 503% revenue gain in the second quarter of 2025 and moving toward a national footprint that includes 25 DaaS hubs by mid-2026. The expansion is underpinned by a steady stream of acquisitions that broaden the company’s customer base, expertise, and geographic reach. With 11 acquisitions completed to date, ZenaTech is stitching together aviation, utility, and infrastructure know-how to accelerate drone use in regulated markets.

For defense planners and infrastructure operators alike, the message is clear: an on-demand drone fleet can be deployed faster, managed with software, and governed with auditable data trails. The DaaS model is not just about convenience; it reframes risk, cost, and accountability in a sector historically dominated by capital-heavy deployments and patchy regulatory alignment.

One concrete example of ZenaTech’s acquisitive strategy is the recent purchase of Putt Land Surveying in Arizona, which the company says will help extend statewide survey and inspection capabilities. This follows the September acquisition of A&J Land Surveyor in Jacksonville, a move that strengthens the firm’s presence in aviation and utility markets across Florida. Executives describe acquisitions as a bridge to scale: they add staff, customers, and local credibility while letting the DaaS platform automate workflows and analytics across regions.

By weaving these local teams into a centralized platform, ZenaTech is creating a national network that can coordinate missions, training, and compliance across the country. The Orlando DaaS headquarters announced in late 2025 will anchor the effort, providing space for coordination, training, and operations that support up to 50 new employees by mid-2026. Orlando’s aerospace ecosystem, government partnerships, and favorable business climate make it an attractive hub for the rollout. This is a deliberate choice as the company eyes the world’s largest drone market outside China, with North America already contributing a meaningful share of growth in the sector.

Beyond services, ZenaTech is building a domestic, end-to-end stack that includes manufacturing. Its Taiwan-based Spider Vision Sensors unit plans a 16,000-square-foot facility to produce printed circuit boards, cameras, and sensors for ZenaDrone models, with a commitment to NDAA-compliant supply chains for U.S. defense customers. Chief executive Shaun Passley emphasizes vertical integration as a shield against restricted components and as a lever for speed, transparency, and resilience. In practical terms, this means a drone that can be traced from copper trace to airframe—a feature that matters in regulated environments where provenance matters as much as performance.

In a separate strategic thrust, ZenaTech unveiled a proprietary quantum computing hardware platform on September 30, 2025, to power real-time data analytics for its AI-driven drones. The initial five-qubit prototype is envisioned to scale into fleets capable of processing massive sensor streams and delivering predictive insights faster than traditional ground-based systems. The company frames quantum processing as a catalyst for higher-speed decision making in both commercial and defense contexts, with applications including weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, and traffic optimization in the skies. If realized, these capabilities would set ZenaTech apart from peers still exploring AI-based autonomy using conventional processors.

Momentum is evident in the numbers. In Q2 2025, ZenaTech reported revenue of $2.24 million, a 503% jump from a year earlier, while the first half of 2025 tallied $3.38 million, up 251% year over year. Market observers have noted a shifting valuation as the company builds a credible revenue base around recurring services and long-term contracts. Analysts from Maxim Group have initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a target price near $9, underscoring expectations that defense and critical-infrastructure markets will absorb and reward scale. The path from a niche drone maker to a nationwide DaaS platform is not guaranteed, but the trajectory is compelling.

The larger story here extends beyond a single company. ZenaTech’s strategy—own the tech stack, scale via acquisitions, and convert customers into recurring revenue streams—illustrates a trend toward defense-grade autonomy in commercial airspace. As the global drone services market approaches a multi-hundred-billion-dollar scale and looks toward a potential half-trillion by the early 2030s, a domestically controlled supply chain and integrated hardware-software stack become increasingly valuable. The company’s emphasis on NDAA-compliant manufacturing and transparent procurement points to a future where procurement, compliance, and performance are inseparable in drone programs.

For readers outside the inner circle of drone development, the take-away is pragmatic: toward a world where a city can contract a ready-to-deploy autonomous drone network for critical tasks, paying for what it uses rather than owning the assets outright. The DaaS model lowers barriers to adoption, reduces risk, and aligns incentives around data and results. It also pressures incumbents to modernize supply chains, invest in in-house components, and embrace AI-driven analytics that can scale from a single site to a national grid of aerial intelligence. The implications touch aviation policy, defense procurement, and even how utilities and municipalities plan for resilience against disruptions.

Model and Market Momentum

The DaaS approach creates a feedback loop: more hubs attract more customers, which fuels more data and better AI models, which in turn justify more automation and more automated procurement. This loop is not just a sales pitch; it reflects a broader industry shift toward service-oriented drone architectures that blend hardware, software, and regulatory compliance into one package. For customers, the benefit is straightforward: predictable costs, faster deployments, and access to advanced analytics without endless capex cycles.

Manufacturing and Compliance

Vertical integration remains a cornerstone of ZenaTech’s strategy. By building components in Taiwan yet delivering NDAA-compliant products to U.S. defense clients, the company aims to harmonize speed with security. The planned 30–40 technical staff at the Taiwan facility highlight a mid-term ramp that should feed the U.S. market with higher-quality components, better traceability, and fewer single-supplier bottlenecks. The NDAA alignment matters because it reduces regulatory friction for customers in government and critical-infrastructure sectors, a point of emphasis for buyers who must navigate complex supply chains and compliance requirements.

Quantum Power Takes Flight

Experts note that quantum processing could unlock new levels of real-time decision making for autonomous fleets. ZenaTech’s five-qubit prototype is a first step, but even at this early stage, the prospect of rapid data fusion from cameras, LiDAR, thermal sensors, and weather data excites defense and industry observers alike. The company frames this as a platform play—one that could scale from niche defense tests to broad commercial deployments, especially in environments where latency and data volume challenge traditional compute approaches.

Reader-facing takeaway

For defense planners, the message is unmistakable: autonomy and secure, domestically controlled supply chains are becoming core to national resilience. For commercial buyers, the trend signals a shift from one-off drone purchases to ongoing services that optimize uptime, data quality, and regulatory compliance.

The Flight Path Ahead

ZenaTech’s multi-pronged approach—accelerating DaaS locations, concentrating manufacturing, and integrating quantum-capable analytics—points to a broader industry shift. The company’s blend of AI, service models, and hardware control aims to reduce dependence on foreign components and to deliver a more transparent, auditable, and scalable aerial data network. The coming years will reveal how this strategy stacks up against pure-play drone makers and other service-centric entrants, but the early indicators suggest a meaningful reframe of what drone tech can deliver when integrated as a complete system.

Conclusion

As drones transition from tools to autonomous, data-driven infrastructure, the value of platforms that unify software, hardware, and compliance becomes clear. ZenaTech’s push to establish 25 DaaS hubs, manufacture critical components in Asia for U.S. defense clients, and embed quantum-powered analytics signals a future where drone fleets operate with greater speed, security, and intelligence. In a market forecast to reach hundreds of billions, those who can connect capabilities with predictable, scalable services are likely to lead the next wave of aerial innovation.