For more than three decades, the world enjoyed a &quot;peace dividend,&quot; shifting resources from tanks and missiles to hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. That era may be ending. In today&#x27;s episode of The Valley Current®, host Jack Russo explores the global rush toward rearmament as military spending surges and venture capital pours billions into defense technology, from autonomous drones to AI-driven surveillance systems. Is the world entering a new strategic equilibrium where security once again takes priority over social investment? Can nations afford both &quot;guns and butter,&quot; or will rising defense budgets reshape government priorities for a generation? Using economics, history, and game theory, this conversation examines one of the defining questions of our time: when peace becomes more expensive, what are societies willing to sacrifice to preserve it? Jack Russo Managing Partner Jrusso@computerlaw.com www.computerlaw.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackrusso &quot;Every Entrepreneur Imagines a Better World&quot;®️

The Valley Current®: Give Peace a Chance?

THE VALLEY CURRENT®️ COMPUTERLAW GROUP LLP

You're listening to The Valley Current. Imagine you have $12.3 billion just sitting in a massive hypothetical vault. That's a lot of cash. Right. And if this were say 2021 and you were a major Silicon Valley venture capital fund,

you'd probably be pouring that mountain of money into, I don't know, the next big cryptocurrency exchange. Or, you know, a hyper fast grocery delivery app. Exactly. Or some revolutionary AI that writes marketing emails for you. Yeah. But the world has fundamentally changed because in just the first five and a half months of 2026, venture capitalists took that exact sum, $12.3 billion, and they didn't buy software to optimize ad clicks. No, they certainly did not.

They bought autonomous sniper drones. They bought robotic submarines, AI-driven surveillance networks. Welcome to the deep dive. It's a really profound reallocation of capital. And the speed of it is what truly catches the eye. I mean, that $12.3 billion raise before we even hit June of 2026, it's almost double the amount raised in the exact same period just one year prior in 2025. Double in one year.

Yeah. And it actually eclipses the entire 12 month total of 2025, which sat at about $9.95 billion. So we are looking at a financial tidal wave moving in a very specific, very lethal direction. And that tidal wave is the focal point of our deep dive today. We're unpacking a massive, comprehensive summer 2026 special briefing. It was put together by computer law group LLP or CLG.

It's a deeply researched assessment titled the end of the peace dividend guns versus butter even handed. It's a brilliant brief. It really is. And our goal today is to figure out what that $12.3 billion gold rush actually signifies for you, you know, for...

The Valley Current®: Give Peace a Chance?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

The Valley Current®: Give Peace a Chance?

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.