Tech Support: U.S. Cant Defeat China — Not Without Tax Dollars To Close Tech Gap, Warns Policy Pro
Stanford's Steve Blank has warned lawmakers that the Defense Department is not designed to defeat or deter China and suggests the Pentagon should spend large sums of taxpayer money on new technology to compete with the communist regime.
House Select Committee on China Mike Gallagher is taking lawmakers on a trip to Silicon Valley this week, stopping at Stanford University on Friday to meet with policy experts and Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to sources familiar with the committee's plans.
Mr. Blank, founder of the Gordian Knot Center for Homeland Security Innovation at Stanford, said he looks forward to visiting Mr. Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin, said he plans to lobby Congress for a roadmap to be followed by the Defense Department. Financing new technologies with private investors. The Gordian Knot Center was launched in 2021 with funding from the Office of Naval Research.
"We really don't know how to deal with and compete with a nation that has a nationalistic approach to competition like China," Blank said.
His brief includes an expansion of the defense innovation department and a new strategic capital office with more funding.
The purpose of DIU is to help develop technology for use by the Department of Defense and Mr. Blank has lobbied for the department to receive more than $100 million in new commercial technology contracts. The orders go to companies that develop things like drones, underwater vehicles and artificial intelligence.
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The Office of Strategic Capital was officially created last December to bridge the "Valley of Death" by bridging the gap between technology invented in the lab and the production that makes it commercially available.
The Department of Defense has tried something similar before and failed. For example, the Army Venture Capital Fund, the ministry's venture capital firm established in 2002, was closed last year.
Intelligence agencies have also been more successful in funding tech companies than the military. In-Q-Tel, a non-profit strategic investment fund underwritten by the CIA that has funded tech startups for more than 20 years, has Silicon Valley coverage.
According to In-Q-Tel's investment, in-Q-Tel has hundreds of supervisors spread across company boards that it pays to attend meetings where potential founders like Mark Zuckerberg and the future Elon Musk make decisions about the companies' futures. theirs. . Partner Katie Gray.
Observers listen to entrepreneurs and decide whether or not to accept investment proposals. Ms Gray told the National Intelligence and Security Alliance conference that entrepreneurs have become more aware of the risks involved in accepting funding from foreign backers.
"We're not on the board, but when we invest in a company, we are on the board," Ms Gray told an audience of government officials and business leaders. "I think about 300 committees go to meetings at any one time."
Ms Gray said In-Q-Tel has invested alongside 3,000 investors to fund leading US technologies. By combining taxpayer money with private venture capitalists, In-Q-Tel aims to get taxpayers outright if a bet on a new developer fails.
The Ministry of Defense has announced that it will develop a similar investment potential for the military. Wesley Spurlock of the Office of Strategic Capital said in a conference call with Ms. Gray in March that DOD wants to go beyond procurement and grants and invest alongside private lenders.
He encouraged audience scouts to quickly learn how the venture capital community works in order to prepare for the future.
Lawmakers who make funding decisions for government agencies willing to work with venture capitalists are meeting with investors this week. Lawmakers concerned about China's rapid tech race to Silicon Valley are meeting with prominent venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Vinod Khosla, according to a source familiar with the committee's plans.
