Tseng: A $1M defense contract yields 10x value via venture backing
Brandon Tseng · From Silicon Valley to the Pentagon: The Future of Defense Innovation · Mar 7, 2024 · at 6:41
Brandon Tseng is the co-founder of Shield AI. He explains to the a16z summit audience how private venture capital leverages defense contract dollars into expanded R&D for government customers.
0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.0s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“You know, let a, you know, one million dollar contract, you're getting 10 X in terms of the product development capabilities behind you know, the company that's working with the customer.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Brandon Tseng
Tseng: Aircraft carriers and expensive jets will be destroyed quickly in major conflict
“What's really interesting to me is how the defense market is transforming. And moving away from exquisite capital assets like aircraft carriers, like ships, like very, very expensive fighter jets or very, very expensive drones. And they're moving away from it …”
Tseng: US military is not prepared for large-scale conflict
“Do, do I look at them and say, hey, they're prepared for large scale conflict? No, I don't.”
Tseng: Shield AI program allocated 60 aircraft despite commander wanting 1,000
“We're in a program of record. If you ask, you know, this was brought up. He's, they asked the commander, how many of these aircraft that shield AI produces do you think you're getting? He said, I hope we're getting a thousand. They're getting 60, right?”
Tseng: AI's key defense domains are autonomy, battle management, hypersonics, space
“In my view, I think there's really four fundamental areas in the defense, you know, space in modern warfare where it's going to be a critical game changer, and I can speak probably relatively intelligently to two of them. And so the four areas being autonomy, …”
Brandon Tseng: Adversaries actively jam U.S. drone GPS and communications
“Russia, China Iran, North Korea, they are building up their electronic warfare capabilities. They are jamming GPS. They are jamming communications, which are traditional assets that we've become so reliant on, our predator drones, our, you know, our smaller ve…”