new The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Just dropped: According to the Financial Times reportMajor defense technology companies Palantir and Palmer Lucky Anduril is in discussions with SpaceX and OpenAI (among other technology players) to form a consortium to bid on U.S. government defense contracts.
The goal of the group, which reportedly plans to announce membership as early as January, is to be announced. It is to block “key” contractors who have a habit of making major deals with the Pentagon. In the conglomerate's crosshairs are Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing.
There's little doubt that traditional brands bid well on defense jobs. According to Review of fiscal year 2023 of the Ministry of DefenseLockheed Martin took home $61.4 billion, RTX (née Raytheon) brought in $24.1 billion and Boeing brought in $20.1 billion in 2021. 71% of Lockheed Martin's total revenue It comes from a contract with the US government. Less than 50% of Boeing and RTX's annual sales went to the Feds during the same period, as The American Prospect has previously pointed out . These are Generally, companies that receive state funding But the government has no real control over operations or leadership.
So, will the nation's safety and security be improved by preventing the Big Three's vice takeover of the Pentagon? It is possible, under the assumption that mass production of weapons of war and the provision of these weapons to allies for conflicts ranging from mostly genocidal to genocidal, is a net positive for national security that You can call it suspicious.–
but this Is a collection of tech companies in particular a hammer against an oligopoly? It is unclear if this is an improvement on the status quo.
Palantir has carved itself out of a niche as the Defense Department's go-to for AI systems, only this year it snagged. 100 million dollar contract to create military AI-powered targeting tools and 480 million dollars To expand the Pentagon's data analysis and decision-making tools The company is more than happy to provide its technology to projects. The most ethically questionable This includes being the technology linchpin of the Trump Administration on Immigration and Customs Enforcement. which helps lead to The destruction of immigrant families and Facilitate mass raids which leads to separation between children and parents of the company Technology remains central to the ongoing Israeli occupation. In the Gaza Strip there are It killed more than 45,000 people.–
Anduril is called “Technology's Most Controversial Startup” by Bloomberg has built a censorship tower to be used on the US-Mexico border to track migrants and has Exploring the development of automatic weapons– The company's big play is Building drones for warBut it's still keeping an eye on it. Creation of surveillance satellitesAll of which have serious ethical questions attached to them.
OpenAI recently announced a partnership with Anduril to implement anti-drone systemBut it looks like this will be the first of many collaborations if the association comes together. In which some agreements have occurred Chaos among OpenAI employees who did not particularly want to be involved in defense work, quietly followed OpenAI. Remove language from usage policy Restricting the use of technology for military and warfare purposes
And above all, it's Peter Thiel all the way. Dear Thiel, the liberal techno chameleon who never stays quiet. Try to place his disciple in as many branches of government as possible He's basically been in all of these companies. He founded Palantir, co-founded OpenAI, gave a lot of financial backing to Anduril, and was an early investor in SpaceX. An ideology that can be achieved too generous In conclusion, it is “Technological progress regardless of the human cost,” Thiel's biographer Max Chafkin said. told Time Thiel deserves to be afraid, saying, “When you combine hostility to democracy and institutional norms with billionaire funding, You might cause damage.”
Suddenly, maybe the villain but evil status of an old school defense contractor didn't seem so bad.