At a DC Defense-Tech Conference, No Hegseth—and “Epic Fury” (original) (raw)

“It’s amazing the amount of people that showed up to this, considering we’re at war,” Andreessen Horowitz general partner David Ulevitch told me in a breakout room at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, a few blocks away from the White House. I met Ulevitch this morning at the venture capital firm’s American Dynamism Summit, between panels on defense manufacturing, wartime AI, and the new space race.

The fourth annual conference was held to celebrate the firm’s American Dynamism fund, which has raised a total of $1.776 billion (yes, in honor of America’s 250th birthday) to invest in start-ups it believes are working “in the national interest.” That includes companies working on autonomous weaponry, industrial manufacturing, critical minerals mining, and space travel.

The founders, investors, and officials who did assemble here today represent many millions in government contracts, with tech products embedded into our nation’s military operations and lobbying efforts helping to shape the daily political narrative. But today, many of them found themselves confronting something of an existential crisis, as the weekend’s dramatic events have revealed new and shifting fault lines in the already fragile coalition between the Trump administration and the technology sector.

Even Palantir CEO Alex Karp, who took the stage to the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” as his company’s stock price continued to tick up thanks to the firm’s extensive defense contracts, seemed to be feeling unusually reflective.

It was hard at times to follow the argument the characteristically frenetic CEO was trying to make, but the general theme was clear: Silicon Valley has made some enemies, and if it doesn’t adapt quickly, it will pay the price. “The wolves are at the gate, and they already have tasted blood,” he said. “Using technologies in the context of eviscerating Fourth Amendment rights in America is something left and right in this country actually don’t want.” It sounded like a fair enough warning for his own company to keep in mind.

He seemed aware that he might even have enemies in that very room. “I’m viewed as the batshit-crazy guy who is often telling you something you don’t want to hear,” Karp said, addressing the crowd. “And you may not like it, but it’s probably right.”

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White House senior policy adviser for AI Sriram Krishnan and Meta president Dina Powell McCormick.Yassine El Mansouri.

While Karp never addressed Anthropic by name, it was clear that at least some of his rant referred to the company’s attempts to dictate the terms under which the military could use its products. “If Silicon Valley believes we are going to take away everyone’s white-collar job…and you’re gonna screw the military—if you don’t think that’s gonna lead to nationalization of our technology, you’re r-tarded. You might be particularly r-tarded, because you have a 160 IQ.”

Under Secretary Michael, meanwhile, who walked out to metal band Pantera’s “Mouth for War,” did not mince words when talking about his Anthropic counterparts: “You’re taking it upon yourself to be God,” he said. When it came to the debate over who gets to mandate how lethal technology is used in high-stakes scenarios, his stance was clear: “The government has to have a monopoly on violence to protect the country.”

While the day’s speakers were largely supportive of the actions of the administration, there was also an undercurrent of unease. After all, the Pentagon’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk not only posed an existential threat to the company’s business, but also had the ability to set a major legal precedent for the kinds of demands the government is allowed to place on private companies.

Yesterday, Marc Andreessen himself posted on X, “Overheard in Silicon Valley: ‘Every single person who was in favor of government control of AI, is now opposed to government control of AI.’” As various commenters like _The Atlantic_’s CEO, Nick Thompson, pointed out: “And the reverse, too.”

Since donating millions to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in 2024, Andreessen and his cofounder, Ben Horowitz, have positioned themselves as the beating heart at the center of the tech-Trump alliance. While Horowitz spoke on a panel about promoting innovation in the US, Andreessen—who is usually the face of the firm’s government relationships—was nowhere to be found. (Maybe he was still reeling from being referenced as the poster boy for techno-fascism in _Industry_’s finale Sunday night.)

Meanwhile, rah-rah proclamations about the overwhelming success of the raid on Nicolás Maduro drew only a smattering of applause. A State Department official I met in the coffee line confided that he and his colleagues had spent the weekend debating whether it was appropriate, given the weekend’s events, for them to show up today—saying that, ultimately, he’d shown up because he was curious to see how the administration’s messaging was landing with private capital, if at all.

Toward the end of the day, one investor approached me in a breakout room to talk about the cognitive dissonance she was feeling. “The world is fucked,” she said. “But at the same time, it feels like some of the smartest people are working on the hard problems.”