# US Military Venture Capital

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "US Military Venture Capital," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-military-venture-capital/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Per John Kiriakou, the U.S. military now purchases technology using a venture-capital investment model, a shift he cites as a warning sign about how national-security institutions acquire emerging tech.*

Per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), the U.S. military now purchases equipment and technology using a venture-capital investment model, rather than traditional procurement — a development he raised as evidence that "the writing is on the wall" about the militarization of emerging technology.[1] He frames this as part of a broader shift in which tech and energy corporations have become "military-adjacent," folded under the protective umbrella of national security.[2]

Kiriakou points to DARPA's work with Anthropic, OpenAI, and [Palantir](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/palantir) on technology intended for use *"20 years from now"* as a further example of this military-venture pipeline.[3] He says the Pentagon's Department of War recently offered Anthropic a $200 million contract to develop autonomous weapons and mass-surveillance systems, which Anthropic turned down on ethical grounds; OpenAI then accepted the contract after Trump reportedly threatened Anthropic with a hostile takeover for refusing.[4]

Kiriakou has also warned about the risk of powerful private AI models falling into hostile hands. Asked about Mythos, a powerful AI model known for finding corporate vulnerabilities, he said that if a hostile intelligence service such as North Korea's obtained access to a model like it, the model could be used to hack studios — citing a real-world precedent where a studio's systems were taken down entirely — or to attack targets such as the Pentagon, the electrical grid, or water purification facilities.[5]

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [In-Q-Tel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/in-q-tel)

## Sources

1. War & Military · Exposing Crimes is Not a Crime  · John Kiriakou, Jesselyn Radack... · (2026-03-20), at 39:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8HH4U7_tKo&t=2360s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-20-disruption-network-lab-war-military-exposing-crimes-is-not-a-crime-jo/
2. War & Military · Exposing Crimes is Not a Crime  · John Kiriakou, Jesselyn Radack... · (2026-03-20), at 38:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8HH4U7_tKo&t=2330s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-20-disruption-network-lab-war-military-exposing-crimes-is-not-a-crime-jo/
3. Future of War: AI, Drones & the Cyprus Conflict (2026-05-31), at 1:26:55. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjuGkLG7ByY&t=5215s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-31-lazaros-sideras/
4. Future of War: AI, Drones & the Cyprus Conflict (2026-05-31), at 1:25:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjuGkLG7ByY&t=5152s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-31-lazaros-sideras/
5. Future of War: AI, Drones & the Cyprus Conflict (2026-05-31), at 1:20:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjuGkLG7ByY&t=4804s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-31-lazaros-sideras/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-military-venture-capital/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt