Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

In an era when America’s chief rival, China, has ordered that all commercial firms within its borders make their research and technology available for military exploitation, strengthening the relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley is an urgent necessity, argue Raj Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff. They come to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to offer an inside look at an elite unit within the Pentagon—the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit X—whose mission is to bring Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge technology to America’s military. Shah is a technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and former director of the Defense Innovation Unit; Kirchhoff is the former director of strategic planning for the National Security Council under President Obama and is the co-creator of the Defense Innovation Unit. Until recently, the Pentagon was known for its uncomfortable relationship with Silicon Valley and for slow-moving processes that acted as a brake on innovation. Unit X was specifically designed as