Kristina Nilsson:

Think about AI almost like an enabling liquid for human beings to function in the future. And that enabling liquid has a lot of physical infrastructure behind it, but ultimately all information, all data by individuals, corporations, and governments are going to flow through this liquid.

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Justin Krauss:

The Security and Resiliency Initiative, having spent years covering venture-backed companies working in frontier tech and really changing the way we live. Almost bringing science fiction to real life. The Security and Resiliency Initiative, what it really does is gives us a chance to focus even more than we have before on finding those ones that fit these incredibly critical pillars of energy independence and defense and aerospace and supply chain. It is one of the most rewarding things you can possibly do is to spend time with a founder who's building a business that is changing the world, and you can help him or her through those steps. And in this case, it's even better because it fits in something that we all believe fundamentally is important for our country and our allies.

Kristina Nilsson:

You know, as we think about the AI value chain, the broader ecosystem associated with that, it truly does encompass pretty much every economy in the world. And so, having a framework that evaluates policy, evaluates financing, evaluates really targeted focus on advancing these technologies, which is everything from manufacturing to construction, to the electronic supply chain, to data centers broadly, to the entire AI application model-development ecosystem... Having a partner that really cares about that, thinks about it on a domestic and global basis and thinks about how do we as a firm, how do we as a team really say, "Okay, how can we best leverage our assets, which is everything from connectivity to capital markets and that interface and interplay with government and policy, to really ensure that all of this is successful?" Think about AI almost like an enabling liquid for human beings to function in the future. And that enabling liquid has a lot of physical infrastructure behind it, but ultimately all information, all data by individuals, corporations, and governments are going to flow through this liquid. And so, the debate is very active right now by every country in the world. Who has access to that liquid and what influence do they have on it? And so, if you think about AI build-out both here domestically and internationally, you want to ensure that you have a solid technical foundation that is trustworthy, that is not going to use or abuse that information on a country basis, on a governmental basis, a corporation basis, and on an individual basis. And so, really, it's this network of trust that is getting deployed everywhere such that we all can benefit from AI on the back end.

Justin Krauss:

So to all these amazing things, all these amazing technologies, now we have to power them. Obviously, the data center question in terms of thinking about not just the capital to build, but where do you build them? What the permitting process is to build them? What is the implications for the local communities when you build them? What's interesting about the data center demand piece is the broad supply chain there. And this actually gets to the heart of our Security and Resiliency Initiative, that it's not just about, can you put up a data center? Can you finance it? Can you attach it to the grid? That's complicated enough. But the question is, all those pieces down the line, do you have the workers to actually build the data center? Can you get the chips, which is a big question. Can you get the turbines you might need to produce the power that comes onto the grid that comes through? I think those are sort of downstream supply chain issues that I know we're thinking a lot about.

Kristina Nilsson:

I think this is a generational opportunity for all of us. And someone said recently, "Think about the magic that's happening here. You're taking sand and transforming it into thought at the end of the day." And so, I mean, the componentry pieces that you talked about– power, all of the components that are necessary for enabling that power, the turbines themselves, the sourcing, the different types of power and translating that into the data center and all of the electronic systems that go into the data center, and then applying the model and the application on top of that–that orchestration is extraordinary. And I think that is our generation's highway infrastructure, shipping infrastructure, railroad infrastructure. It is something that is transformational and necessary. Because you think about productivity... Productivity flatlined, unfortunately, for a very long time. This is something that the globe can get behind, invest, create jobs, create high-paying value-added jobs that's going to enable humanity to work and live better. And maybe to pull on that, in defense tech specifically, what's the overall thesis for SRI?

Justin Krauss:

Clearly, when we think about SRI, a big part of it is defense and aerospace, and particularly, how do we help think about the historic way that–or at least the way we have for the last few decades–outfitted our national security apparatus? How are we changing that now? There's new technologies that enable us to protect our country and assets in a safer way. So when you see, obviously autonomous drones have gotten a lot of attention, but even autonomous vehicles, as the technology continues to improve and you think about logistics technology, moving from point A to point B, in boats, over the ground, or through the air, it takes people out of harm's way, candidly. And not just in a threatened environment, but just an accident happens. And so, when you think about the opportunities that this incredible autonomy that we're seeing that it's going to play out in defense, we're really, really excited about that and supporting companies that are bringing that vision of protecting war-fighters, helping with logistics, and just enhancing our national security.

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