Within the United States, an asymmetry in R&D spending and access to talent is leading to an increasingly deep and sophisticated partnership between global corporations and the Department of Defense (DOD).
The military industrial complex is merging with the private sector in what could be described as an “innovation production complex.” In 2019 the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) increased funding for AI defense technologies from $16 million to $92.1 million, a 589% increase[1]. In September of 2018, DARPA announced a $2 billion campaign over five years to advance state of the art research in AI[2]. The ‘American AI Initiative’ signed by President Trump in February 2019 elevated the development of AI as a national security priority[3]. In short, a growing proportion of state capital is being redirected to a non-state affiliated innovation complex. With reference to the military in particular the majority of these efforts appear to have a single pre-eminent focal point in mind: battlefield autonomy, powered and made possible by advances in AI.
In short, a growing proportion of state capital is being redirected to a non-state affiliated innovation complex.
from each other has formed. After initiatives such as Project Maven received significant media attention in the United States and around the world, Leung observes that corporations that are less visible and less sensitive to public opinion will facilitate state access to commercial technology[7]. Examples include Booz Allen Hamilton, CISCO, Raytehon and more recently Anduril[8].
Anduril’s founder, Palmer Luckey, played an instrumental role in developing and popularising the technology found in commercial virtual reality kits, selling the technology to Facebook for $2.3 billion in March 2014.[9]
Luckey left Facebook in 2017, to found Anduril with ex-members of the Oculus team and senior executives of Palantir, a US software company founded by Peter Thiel, himself the former co-founder of Paypal[10].
Luckey left Facebook in 2017, to found Anduril with ex-members of the Oculus team and senior executives of Palantir, a US software company founded by Peter Thiel, himself the former co-founder of Paypal
Palantir began providing advanced data analytics to US and UK Intelligence Communities, and other federal agencies, as early as 2003, and went public on the New York Stock exchange on 20th September 2020[11]. Thiel remains notable within Silicon Valley as a member of what would be dubbed the “pay-pal mafia”; a cohort of entrepreneurs that includes Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, that would become legendary for their commercial success and influence within the US technology industry relative to their size in numbers[12]. Both Thiel, Luckey and Musk built bridges with the Republican Party in a sector that otherwise donates heavily to the Democratic Party[13].