Building physical tech is back in fashion thanks to AI, robotics, and defense

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on Equity Wednesday, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Louis, co-founder of America's Frontier Fund, to discuss the pressing trends in tech innovation. From robotics and AI reshaping manufacturing to Silicon Valley's embrace of defense technology, plus Louis shares his main predictions for 2025. Listen tot he full episode for a deeper conversation on: Silicon Valley's deep roots in defense tech The advantages and challenges facing founders seeking government contracts rather than VC funding The role startups play in shifting American leadership from the digital world back into physical manufacturing Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of
0:15.3	startups. I'm Rebecca Boulon, and this is our Wednesday episode, where we home in on a trend
0:19.8	in the tech world and dive deep.
0:21.6	Today, I'm talking to Gilman Louis, the CEO and co-founder of America's Frontier Fund.
0:26.6	We talk about the push for American startups to help build leading frontier tech, how robotics and
0:31.3	AI will change manufacturing, Silicon Valley's embrace of defense tech, and his predictions for 2025.
0:37.2	Gilman, welcome to the show.
0:38.3	It's great to be here, Rebecca.
0:39.7	Now, Gilman, you, I'm so excited to talk to you because you have, what, 30 plus years of
0:44.5	national security and investment experience.
0:46.5	You were the former CEO of Incutel, which is the tech investment firm funded by the CIA.
0:51.0	I believe you worked on the Biden administration's science and technology advisory council,
0:55.6	commissioner on the National Security Commission on artificial intelligence from 2018 to 2021.
1:00.3	And now America's Frontier Fund, am I missing anything?
1:03.1	There's probably a few other things on the list, but it's good to be here.
1:07.3	Yeah, well, tell us a little bit about America's frontier fund. It's part nonprofit,
1:15.0	part investment fund, part foundation. There's a lot going on there. Studio, I think, is involved. At the highest level, when the founders, myself, Jordan Blashek, and a few others got together to think
1:21.9	about what the U.S. needed in terms of leadership and technology from a global perspective.
1:28.1	You know, the U.S. has a lot of advantages, but we did not have capital really organized around
1:34.5	the kind of the priorities of what in the national security side of the house or the economic
1:39.9	security side of the house focused in on the areas that are necessary to compete on a global
1:45.7	basis, particularly on this kind of strategic competition we find ourselves in with other nation
	...

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