VALLEY OF DEATH

Wildly lucrative partnerships give tech titans vast sway with the military.

Weinberger’s informative, worrying book chronicles the rise of what she dubs the Pentagon-Silicon Complex, a nexus driving “the largest shift in the defense industrial base since the end of World War II.” Defense technology firms focused on data analysis and weapons development now contract with Washington for billions of dollars. Unlike older defense contractors that “developed weapons with government money,” venture capital-backed Silicon Valley firms frequently fund their own research. This means “they own the technology they’ve developed, placing an immense amount of power in private hands,” writes the national security journalist and author. One terrifying scenario: A billionaire develops nuclear weapons technology and makes his own bomb. The defense tech contracts align with prognostications that China might invade Taiwan, a source of semiconductors used in the U.S. This could trigger an American military response. Silicon Valley firms claim their drones and AI-powered missiles can help win such a fight, yet “to date they certainly have not shown that they can.” The state of play has significantly changed since end of the 2010s, Weinberger shows. That’s when Chinese investment in Silicon Valley began “a precipitous downturn,” and tech firms increasingly looked to Washington. The author’s early chapters dutifully retell familiar stories about Washington and Silicon Valley, such as Steve Jobs’ use of CIA funding. But her scrutiny of today’s firms is consistently edifying. Palantir’s Alex Karp’s talk of being part of the Pentagon’s “kill chain” earned it the defense industry’s biggest market capitalization, but Weinberger shows that claims about the company’s role in Ukraine and Gaza appear exaggerated. Meanwhile, her face time with defense tech executives yields priceless quotes. “My entire life I’ve just been obsessing about this problem,” a 22-year-old weapons company founder tells her.

A knowledgeable account of Silicon Valley’s growing influence on Washington, a relationship with potentially huge pitfalls.