{"id":228917,"date":"2023-02-13T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=228917"},"modified":"2025-01-10T15:06:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:06:24","slug":"white-house-linked-venture-capital-fund-boasts-china-war-would-be-great-for-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/02\/white-house-linked-venture-capital-fund-boasts-china-war-would-be-great-for-business\/","title":{"rendered":"White House-Linked Venture Capital Fund Boasts China War Would Be Great for Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

A representative from America\u2019s Frontier Fund said that a \u201ckinetic event\u201d in the Pacific would be very good for its bottom line.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Gilman Louie, America\u2019s Frontier Fund\u2019s co-founder and CEO, responds to questions during a House Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C., on March 12, 2021. Photo: Rod Lamkey\/CNP<\/p><\/div>\n

3 Feb 2023 – <\/em>A war between China and Taiwan will be extremely good for business at America\u2019s Frontier Fund, a tech investment outfit whose co-founder and CEO sits on both the State Department Foreign Affairs Policy Board and President Joe Biden\u2019s Intelligence Advisory Board, according to audio from a February 1 event.<\/p>\n

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The remarks occurred at a tech finance symposium hosted at the Manhattan offices of Silicon Valley Bank. According to attendee Jack Poulson<\/a>, head of the watchdog group Tech Inquiry, an individual who identified himself as \u201cTom\u201d attended the event<\/a> in place of Jordan Blashek, America\u2019s Frontier Fund\u2019s president and chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

Following the panel discussion, \u201cTom\u201d spoke with a gaggle of other attendees and held forth on AFF\u2019s investment in so-called choke points: sectors that would spike in value during a volatile geopolitical crisis, like computer chips or rare earth minerals.\u00a0It turns out, according to audio published by Poulson, that a war in the Pacific would be tremendous for AFF\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf the China-Taiwan situation happens, some of our investments\u00a0will 10x, like overnight.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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\u201c<\/em>If the China-Taiwan situation happens, some of our investments\u00a0will 10x, like overnight,\u201d the person who identified as \u201cTom\u201d said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t want to share the name, but the one example I gave was a critical component that \u2026 the total market value is $200 million, but it is a critical component to a $50 billion market cap. That\u2019s like a choke point, right. And so if it\u2019s only produced in China, for example, and there\u2019s a kinetic event in the Pacific, that would 10x overnight, like no question about it. There\u2019s a couple of different things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

AFF is surely not the only venture fund that would see stratospheric returns throughout their portfolio in the case of a destabilizing global crisis, like a \u201ckinetic event in the Pacific\u201d \u2014 that is to say, war. Unlike most other investment firms, though, AFF is closely tied to the upper echelons of American power,\u00a0the very people who would craft any response to such a war.<\/p>\n

Gilman Louie, AFF\u2019s co-founder and current CEO, serves as chair of the National Intelligence University, advises Biden through his Intelligence Advisory Board, and was tapped<\/a> for the State Department\u2019s Foreign Affairs Policy Board by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2022. Louie previously ran In-Q-Tel<\/a>, the CIA\u2019s<\/a> venture capital arm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In other words, AFF stands to massively profit from a geopolitical crisis while its CEO advises the Biden administration on geopolitical crises. (America\u2019s Frontier Fund did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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AFF was founded in 2021, according<\/a> to its website, \u201cto build the companies, platforms, and capabilities that will generate once-in-a-generation returns for investors, while ensuring long-term economic competitiveness for the U.S. and its allies.\u201d Last year, the New York Times reported the techno-nationalist fund had met with U.S. lawmakers to request a $1 billion injection<\/a>. AFF currently leads the Quad Investor Network, a White House-sponsored alliance of investors<\/a> from the so-called Quad: a geopolitical bloc aimed at countering Chinese hegemony constituted by the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan.<\/p>\n

The fund also has close ties to some of the American private sector\u2019s most vocal and influential China hawks. AFF was founded last year with support from former Google\u00a0CEO\u00a0Eric Schmidt, whose closeness to Biden\u2019s government is attracting growing scrutiny and skepticism<\/a>, and investor Peter Thiel<\/a>. Thiel and Schmidt, whose business interests in national security and defense both stand to profit immensely from war in the Pacific, have both advocated<\/a> for a more hostile<\/a> national stance toward China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Schmidt is particularly dedicated to China alarmism, having spent much of his post-Google career thus far drumming up anti-China tensions; first at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence<\/a>, which he chaired, and today through his new think tank, the Special Competitive Studies Project<\/a>, which regularly depicts China as a direct threat to the United States.<\/p>\n

AFF\u2019s own\u00a0Schmidt connections run deep<\/a>: Louie, the CEO, worked alongside Schmidt at the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, while Balshek, the fund\u2019s COO, was previously an executive at Schmidt\u2019s philanthropic fund.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sam Biddle<\/em><\/a> – sam.biddle@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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