In the span of a few years, Silicon Valley executives have shifted from viewing Pentagon collaboration as war-mongering to joining the US Army Reserve.
And if the response Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar — who has joined the newly formed Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps — has received is any indication, the tech industry’s enthusiasm is just beginning.
Sankar told me he has been inundated with messages from people in the industry who want to do the same. “Hundreds of people have reached out to me,” he said. “Service is contagious and people respond.”
Last Friday, Sankar was sworn into Detachment 201, along with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew, OpenAI’s former Chief Research Office. The four will serve part-time as senior advisors.
The purpose of the new initiative, the Army said in a statement, “is to fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation.”
Sankar envisions a future where the Department of Defense will prioritize recruiting in the Bay Area.
“You need to be where the innovative talent is,” he said. “We have the facilities they don’t have.”
This surge of patriotism marks a dramatic change for an industry that has, in recent years, shunned defense tech firms.
Scale CEO Alexandr Wang told me his company’s decision to work with the Department of Defense five years ago was enormously controversial at the time.
“We were a bit of a pariah in the AI industry because all the other AI companies were were going the other way. They were moving away from working with on defense or security applications,” Wang said. “And now I’m seeing that pendulum swing back where, even in Silicon Valley, there’s a clear recognition and moral imperative that we need to be utilizing AI to support, support our war fighters, support our natural security mission.”
Over the past year, OpenAI secured a $200 million contract with the DoD to develop AI capabilities for national security, marking its first major government contract.
Meta partnered with Anduril Industries to develop augmented reality (AR) products for US military use. Google has re-entered the defense sector by reversing earlier AI policies that prevented it from supporting national security.
That’s a big switch from 2018, when Google walked away from the Pentagon’s Project Maven (which used AI and machine learning for military targeting) after thousands of employees — touting the company’s “Don’t be evil” mantra — signed a letter demanding the company abandon the project.
David Ulevitch founded a16z’s American Dynamism firm, which invests in founders and companies that support the national interest, including in the fields of aerospace, defense, public safety, education and housing.
He told me that Google’s overreaction was a “watershed moment” that spurred others in the industry to return to working on defense and warfare.
“The history of Silicon Valley is rooted in supporting the national interest ,” he said, “but somewhere along the way, many lost sight of that.
“Founders have realized that building in the national interest doesn’t just feel good and patriotic — which it is — but represents a generational opportunity to build the iconic companies that will power and advance our country for decades to come.”
During World War II, Frederick Terman, the Stanford engineering dean often called the “father of Silicon Valley,” built a defense tech ecosystem at the university, securing government contracts and establishing the Stanford Industrial Park. And companies like Hewlett-Packard, Varian Associates, Shockley Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor supplied critical electronics for military radar, missiles and communication systems.
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The stakes might be higher now, with AI’s potential to transform governance or even create an extinction event. And many tech leaders have worked with China — and recognize how that country doesn’t play fair.
Wang warned: “If China gets ahead and America’s brightest minds don’t tackle national security, what does that world look like?”
Silicon Valley’s embrace of patriotism coincides with a cultural shift as companies crack down on all things “woke,” decreasing DEI requirements and curtailing climate pledges.
Of course, along with patriotism comes the potential for enormous profit.
Palantir, which relies on the government for more than 40% of its revenue, has come under scrutiny — with lawmakers asking the company to share details of a project that could help the government create a database of Americans, according to a New York Times report.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) has concerns about data privacy and tech companies getting too close to the government, emphasizing the need for a balance between innovation and security. “You can innovate while safeguarding information,” he told me. He said technologies like blockchain, which could track access to American data, offer a promising solution to enhance privacy protections.
Relying on American companies is arguably the best way to do that.
“Ninety percent of all tech is American… it’s one of our greatest assets,” Sankar said. “This is about the importance and primacy of people. When we look at history, innovators like John Boyd, who created the F-16, [have from] the private sector.”
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