AI Militarization:
Top AI militarization takeaways
- Silicon Valley has fully embraced the Pentagon, taking contracts they used to be hesitant to touch that will see the Defense Department develop AI for the battlefield.
- The biggest Silicon Valley winner during the early days of the second Trump administration has been Palantir, co-founded by Peter Thiel, who used to be Vice President J.D. Vance’s employer and who also spent $15 million to help Vance win his Senate seat in 2022.
- The U.S. is not alone in using AI for national security purposes, with China developing AI tools to spread propaganda in Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as collect data on U.S. members of Congress.
Palantir's $10 billion Army contract continues its D.C. win streak: The Army consolidated 75 existing contracts into a single enterprise agreement with Palantir, valued at up to $10 billion over ten years, marking one of the largest defense tech deals and signaling a policy shift toward integrated commercial AI procurement. (Axios)
The militarization of Silicon Valley: While Silicon Valley previously shied away from Pentagon contracts, under the new Trump administration tech executives are joining the military as reserve officers and companies have agreed to hundreds of billions in defense contracts that will soon see AI tech inundate the U.S. military. (New York Times)
China turns to AI in information warfare: The Chinese government is using AI to launch influence campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while collecting data on U.S. members of Congress, according to current and former American officials. (New York Times)
Trading AI:
Top trading AI takeaways:
- While the Trump administration has started to loosen export controls on semiconductor chips, the president announced massive tariffs on companies that don’t have at least some manufacturing present within the U.S. Most major chip manufacturers already do or have pledged to build plants.
- The administration has started to explore putting location trackers in top-of-the-line chips to make them easier to keep out of Chinese hands, which has put chip supergiant Nvidia in a tough spot as its CEO looks to please both the U.S. and Chinese governments.
Trump’s threat to hit chips with 100% tariffs raises big questions: The president’s exemption for companies that either currently have or pledge to build factories in America would cover nearly every major semiconductor manufacturer in the world. Details on what companies would actually be subjected to tariffs and how the plan would be implemented remain unclear. (New York Times)