Silicon Valley's Defense Industry is Becoming an Indiana Institution
Publicly available state documents reveal Peter Thiel's fingerprints are all over Indiana
The State of Indiana’s public institutions have become new stomping grounds for Silicon Valley defense companies. Several companies linked to Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, the venture capital fund behind massive companies such as Palantir, Anduril, and OpenAI, have received generous contracts and tight cooperation from state government bodies and public universities. The same billionaires equipping ICE, CBP, and the IDF are doing it with the help of Indiana’s institutions and tax dollars. Here’s how:
The Indiana State government has awarded grants, tax credits, and contracts to these companies often through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), a public-private partnership launched by Governor Mitch Daniels in 2005. The body’s stated purpose is to attract jobs and growth to the state through strategic investments in growing economic sectors, but more recently, from about 2017-2022, under the direction of David Roberts as Chief Innovation Officer, more and more funds have been directed towards Silicon Valley-based defense tech companies.
While occasionally money was directly disbursed to companies purchased by Founders Fund associates, such as $500,000 to the Anduril-purchased Adranos Purdue rocket startup, most of the funds were first distributed to university-linked foundations and public-private partnerships. From these organizations, contracts and awards were given out to Thiel-backed companies. Two main organizations were central partners here: the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) and the Applied Research Institute (ARI).
The Purdue Research Foundation operates out of Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus and conducts numerous activities including investment and research projects. The PRF received about $3.8 million directly from the IEDC directly and another $5.9 million from the IEDC to associaterd contractors for work on PRF projects. One of the PRF’s projects was the Indiana Department of Transportation connected Joint Transportation Research Project.
This project worked to analyze traffic data within the state, notably through a partnership with the now defunct Wejo Group. Wejo’s business model centered on collecting and selling vehicle data, and was largely funded by General Motors and Palantir. These two investors were vital to the operation of the business.
Furthermore, General Motor’s OnStar Service automatically collected and transmitted vehicle location data to Wejo, while Palantir’s investment in the company was dependent upon Wejo’s licensing of Palantir’s Foundry database service. Therefore, without GM drivers’ knowledge, their location data was being filtered into a Palantir database, the very same used by ICE today. And, this covert surveillance was being funded by the State of Indiana and its public universities. The Joint Transportation Research Project was not the only time that the PRF collaborated with Palantir.
One of the PRF’s subsidiaries, the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue (KITDP), is an organization that purportedly advocates for “tech diplomacy”, meanwhile advocating a jingoistic and confrontational approach to Sino-American foreign policy. The namesake of the organization, Keith Krach who was recently appointed CEO of America 250 by President Trump, awarded Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, the 2023 “Tech Freedom Award”.
The Krach Institute also lists Robert Imig, former Senior Architect for research and development at Palantir, as a Krach Institute “Senior Industry Fellow.” Imig only recently left his role at Palantir to become Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of War. The institute is a melting pot of Silicon Valley companies, conservative think tanks, politicians, and former political appointees. The advisory board counts former Secretary of State and CIA director Mike Pompeo, Heritage Foundation Vice President Jay Richards, and Senator Todd Young among others as members.
The Krach Institute consolidates political and tech industry interests into a single organized body which promotes heavy use of Silicon Valley tech in surveillance, cyber warfare, and espionage. The Krach Institute serves as a publicity arm of the Indiana-Silicon Valley partnership, with the Applied Research Institute working more directly with Founders Fund companies on research and development.
In contrast to the Purdue Research Foundation, the ARI finds itself situated on the other side of the Indiana University-Purdue University rivalry. The Applied Research Institute is primarily based out of an IU Bloomington office, with several satellite offices. One such office is located at the WestGate@Crane Technology Park, which also hosts a Purdue Research Foundation office, an IEDC office, as well as formerly having Dave Roberts of the IEDC sitting on the board of directors. The office park is positioned just outside the third largest naval base in the world, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, in Crane, Indiana.
As a public-private partnership, the Applied Research Institute has deep ties to not only state institutions, but also defense technology companies. The ARI received over $35 million directly from the IEDC over the past five years, often with the express purpose of developing ties and contracts with the defense industry. Furthermore, the IEDC’s Chief Innovation Officer David Roberts was transferred directly from the IEDC to be CEO of the Institute.
The funds and support received from the IEDC were directed by Roberts at the Applied Research Institute to pay Anduril, Palmer Luckey’s Founders Fund defense company, a total of $21 million in contracts over just two years. This reached its peak in 2023 when the ARI paid $15 million of its total $50 million in expenses to Anduril, which is a little under a third of its total expenses for that year.
Anduril is a close ally of Palantir and other Thiel backed companies, with cofounder and former Palantir employee Trae Stephens being a partner at Founders Fund. In 2016, Stephens also worked as the director of Trump’s Department of Defense transition team. Anduril has repeatedly partnered with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, most recently in One Big Beautiful Bill contracts, developing a massive AI surveillance network along the southern border. The ARI serves as an accelerator for this kind of surveillance tech development, fueled by Indiana tax dollars and university support.
The ARI even crosses over into the Purdue Research Foundation’s sphere with IEDC support. The IEDC sponsored the “Tech Diplomacy Fellowship”, which provided the ARI $1 million per year to “embed an ARI individual into [Purdue’s Krach Institute] to bolster tech diplomacy skills...”. One notable fellow was Drew Peterson, who, had previously worked as the Director for Africa at the National Security Council. The same institute that awards Palantir’s “sister company” with millions of dollars in contracts; partnered with yet another higher education institution to promote and celebrate the very same family of companies.
These are not simply just state-funded defense contracts. The State of Indiana along side its public universities has funded and promoted a very specific group of Silicon Valley companies. They are not only linked by Founders Fund dollars, but also ideologically and politically.
Palantir and Anduril’s top leadership proudly celebrate their products being used for mass surveillance and warfare. Palantir has repeatedly sold its products to Israel for use in its genocide; meanwhile Anduril’s founder Palmer Luckey has branded himself as a “radical Zionist” and said “Israel has my unqualified support.”
These same tech billionaires have also ingratiated themselves into the Trump sphere of politics, with Vice President Vance himself being a Founders Fund alum, previously working at Founder’s Fund “complement” Mithril Capital. Later, Thiel not only funded Vance’s Narya Capital, but also gave Vance $15 million for his 2022 Ohio Senate race. The confluence of interests between defense tech billionaires, politicians, and state institutions in present in the highest offices of the White House on down to the state university’s administrations.
It’s no surprise then when Pamela Whitten, who sits on the board of the Applied Research Institute, suppresses pro-Palestinian campus protests, or when the Krach Institute launches a “Trusted Tech Caucus” in Israel. The billionaires providing Israel with AI tools and tech are doing the same for ICE and CBP, and Indiana’s state institutions are not only funding, but actively promoting their dystopian vision.
This partnership is ongoing in Indiana, with companies like Kratos striking new deals with the state. More on this story to come.
This is an amaizing piece describing how Palantir buys revenue by bribing politicians.
It describes the AI bubble on a next level.
Follow the $.
And the Indiana General Assembly has in essence decided NOT to investigate the IEDC’s shenanigans.