NEW- DOGE is leading a new effort at the Pentagon to acquire tens of thousands of cheap military drones within the coming months. www.reuters.com/business/aer...

New: Steve Simoni sold a company to DoorDash for $125M in 2022. Now he's building Allen Control Systems, which makes an AI-powered autonomous machine gun turret called the "Bullfrog" to shoot drones out of the sky. "The future is Skynet, basically." www.reuters.com/technology/h...

For anyone who cares about China, national security and tech... this book by my incredible friend @ebakerwhite.bsky.social is a must read.

Intel has been touting partnerships with sanctioned Chinese surveillance firms as Trump announces that the USG is taking a stake in the company: www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

Scoop: Meta has held talks with Midjourney about a partnership including a potential acquisition, among several previously-unreported AI video startups it's met recently, sources tell me at @upstarts.bsky.social. Midjourney's been busy, too, pitching an API. www.upstartsmedia.com/p/meta-talks...

Exclusive: Military leaders have said they need autonomous swarms of maritime drones to take on China. But the Navy's effort to achieve this is under scrutiny following test failures, the firing of a top admiral and a pause on a contract with L3Harris. www.reuters.com/business/aer...

I have a new job! send me tips / say hi: [email protected]

@davidjeans.bsky.social hired by @Reuters to cover space and defense: talkingbiznews.com/media-news/r...

New- Will Somerindyke supplied munitions to warzones for years. Now with investor BVVC, he's joined the defense tech boom, and is in talks to raise "hundreds of millions" for Union, a startup making artillery shells. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

In Oct. 2024, this very same Open AI exec, Katrina Mulligan, boasted on LinkedIn about going to a Taylor Swift concert with the Secretary of the Army. @davidjeans.bsky.social and I wrote about it for @forbes.com

New: Last week, Anduril's mega $30B funding round underscored how hungry investors are for military startups. It also minted a new defense tech billionaire: Trae Stephens. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

New York friends! I’ll be in Greenwich Village next Tuesday evening for this lovely event — come through and say hi :) www.nyfwa.org/nyfwa-event/...

For this year’s Midas List, we profiled Hemant Taneja and General Catalyst, which has been stretching the scope of its VC firm so far that it’s buying a hospital and cofounding AI companies. With @iainmartin.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

NEW: Shield AI is one of defense tech’s most hyped startups, largely thanks to its V-BAT drone. But last year, a grisly injury involving a U.S. service member threw the $5 billion company off course. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

“Meta is seeing every other big tech firm and reading the tea leaves, seeing that maybe the expected windfall from civilian use of AI is not going to appear,” said Shana Marshall from George Washington University. Great story by @davidjeans.bsky.social. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

New: Meta is recruiting former national security officials to bolster its military ambitions, months after allowing its Llama AI model to be used for military use. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

New- Pentagon leaders are calling for thousands of drones to face China. But they face an uncomfortable reality: Silicon Valley drone companies rely on Chinese components. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

Looks like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's $1 million investment to hang with Trump at Mar-a-Lago this weekend paid off-- "Trump administration backs off Nvidia's 'H20' chip crackdown after Mar-a-Lago dinner" www.npr.org/2025/04/09/n...

New: Hoan Ton-That, the co-founder and former CEO of Clearview AI, has been removed from the controversial facial recognition company's board. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

Palantir sues Y Combinator startup Guardian AI over alleged trade secret theft. My latest for @forbes.com www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

Subscribed and you should too. Can't wait to see where @alexrkonrad takes this. Will be a must read for those following startup land.

New: "Trump’s Liquor Licenses Under Scrutiny After N.Y. Conviction—But New Jersey Keeps Pushing Back Decision" me, for @forbes.com

🚨NEW🚨 The feds recently seized over $60m linked to a Silk Road drug dealer, as well as a load of gold. After Ross Ulbricht's pardon, it's clear the DOJ is still hunting drug dealers who used his dark web site, and their riches. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

New: Among those leading Elon Musk's DOGE effort at the Pentagon is Justin Fulcher, a telehealth startup founder with a degree in terrorism studies. Like other DOGE employees, he's got impressive tech chops. But other parts of his story don't add up. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

Lucy Guo’s first startup hit, AI unicorn Scale, made her one of America’s richest women. Her second startup, Passes, promised to rip up Patreon and Fanfix's script on the creator economy. Working with underage creators threatened to blow it all up. www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

NEW: Elon Musk, leading Trump’s haphazard effort to cut government overspending, is among the largest beneficiaries of federal government support. His empire was built on it. In the past 15 years, Tesla and SpaceX have sucked in $30 billion in public dollars #doge www.forbes.com/sites/alanoh...

It's conventional wisdom in Washington that the Pentagon needs to speed up development of weapons, use more commercial technology and tap new suppliers. Now one of the most promising experiments at the DoD to do exactly that has been upended by a bureaucratic backlash. www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...

The CEO of Clearview AI, the shadowy facial recognition company that was fined more than once in Europe for illegal measures, has resigned, reports @davidjeans.bsky.social

New: Clearview AI's CEO Hoan Ton-That has resigned. After he led the company through controversy and lawsuits, the company struggled to secure big federal contracts. Now, Clearview is focused on selling to the Trump border effort and the Pentagon. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

New: "Trump’s Golf Courses Keep Pushing Legal Boundaries With Presidential Seal Markers" me, for @forbes.com www.forbes.com/sites/zachev...

It's a DOGE-EAT-DOD WORLD out there.

this art was very fun to make and involved no AI :) on DOGE and the DoD, by @davidjeans.bsky.social for @forbes.com www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

New: The Pentagon braces for DOGE. With Elon Musk’s cost cutters due any day, military leaders are eyeing bloated contracts, programs and legacy weapons systems. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

"Silicon Valley’s ‘Gundo’ Bros Are Building A Y Combinator For Military Tech" by @davidjeans.bsky.social for @forbes.com

New: El Segundo is getting its own military tech accelerator, with eyes on Y Combinator. a16z, Point72, Lux + others have backed a stream of companies emerging from Disciplus Ventures in the past year (it's led by a 21-yo who has raised his own fund) www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

Breaking: Anduril is in talks to raise $2.5B at a $28 billion valuation in a round led by Founders Fund, sources confirm to me, following CNBC www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

Who will power Trump's $500B Stargate plan? Few energy companies are closer tied to Startgate's leaders than fusion startup Helion, which has raised big $$ from Sam Altman and SoftBank + signed a contract with Microsoft. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

pre-order this book by my legendary friend and colleague right now!!!!!!!

New: General Catalyst's latest defense tech bet is a $50M funding round for Onebrief, a Pentagon-friendly collaboration software startup valued at $650M. Fmr Pentagon leader and Project 2025 author Chris Miller has just joined its board. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

General Catalyst's latest defense tech bet is a $50M funding round for Onebrief, a Pentagon-friendly collaboration software startup valued at $650M. Fmr Pentagon leader and Project 2025 author Chris Miller has just joined its board. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

New: Saronic, which hopes to deploy a fleet of autonomous boats for the U.S. military, is in talks to raise $500 million at over $3B val — just months after raising funding at a unicorn valuation. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

"Military Tech Investors Go Looking For A Trump Bump At Mar-a-Lago" by @davidjeans.bsky.social for @forbes.com

New: VC investors behind the defense tech boom are rushing to Mar-a-Lago ahead of next week's inauguration, aiming to signal proximity to Trump and his inner circle — and government contracts. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

NEW: On the same day Mark Zuckerberg announces Meta's new commitment to "Free Expression," internal employee dissent and criticism is being censored www.404media.co/facebook-del...

New: VC firm 1789 Capital — where Donald Trump Jr is a partner — made its first defense tech bet, and will lead a $60M series C funding round in 3D-printed rockets startup Firehawk.

NEW: Proceeds from official inaugural merchandise usually fund inaugural events. But Trump’s merch sales? They’re heading to the RNC and his Never Surrender PAC—a fund he can tap into for personal expenses. me, for @forbes.com

New: $40B fintech giant Checkout, one of Europe's most valuable startups, took a big revenue hit after cutting ties to Binance over money laundering concerns. Since then, almost the entire c-suite has left the company. www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...

NEW: The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, which carries out security clearances for millions of American workers, is using AI to speed up its work by organizing heaps of private information. From @ebakerwhite.bsky.social and me. www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

I profiled the family at the center of the raw milk recalls over bird flu, who’ve built Raw Farm into a $30M+ (revenue) business — and have big plans for expansion. “Our customers are saying, ‘Screw you, FDA, we want raw milk,’” says founder Mark McAfee. @Forbes.com www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

New: As Silicon Valley leaders decry ‘wokeism,’ I profiled a group called New Founding that says it's at the center of a Christian-MAGA-tech movement building a new blueprint for VC. And Marc Andreessen is in. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...