📍 The Military Built the Modern Internet. Now It’s Powering the Next One. ⸻ Hey Builders! Behind almost every major leap in modern technology stands an idea first tested for defense. The GPS in your phone began as a Cold War satellite system. The internet grew out of ARPANET, a Pentagon project linking research labs. Today, the same spirit of disciplined experimentation is driving advances in AI, robotics, quantum computing, and cybersecurity. Veterans Day isn’t just a moment to honor service — it’s a reminder that the architecture of innovation has roots in national service, public research, and the courage to fund the unknown. ⸻ 🗞 Top Story — From Defense Labs to Deep Tech: How the Military Seeded the Digital Age ▪️ ARPA to AI: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded the first computer networks, self-driving car prototypes, and speech recognition systems that became Siri and Alexa (DARPA 2025). ▪️ Satellite Navigation: GPS was designed for global troop coordination; its public release in the 1980s created a trillion-dollar logistics and mobility economy (U.S. Space Command 2025). ▪️ Machine Learning & Simulation: The U.S. Air Force’s Project Maven and the Army’s predictive-maintenance AI now drive innovations in industrial automation and climate modeling (DoD AI Report 2025). ▪️ Energy & Materials: Military R&D on battery storage, lightweight composites, and microgrids now underpins the clean-tech revolution (DOE Defense Transition Office 2025). What began as national security spending evolved into an innovation commons — proof that public investment and private enterprise can co-create the future. ⸻ ⚡ Quick Briefs ▪️ DARPA’s new “AI Forward Initiative” will invest $2 billion over five years in trustworthy autonomous systems (DARPA 2025). ▪️ The Department of Defense recently partnered with NVIDIA and HPE to develop secure AI supercomputing infrastructure for critical missions (Reuters 2025). ▪️ Lockheed Martin announced open-source defense simulators for civilian AI education and training (CNBC 2025). ▪️ Veteran-founded startups raised $6.2 billion in venture capital in 2024, a record driven by founders in cybersecurity, logistics, and energy systems (PitchBook 2025). ⸻ 🧱 Builder Insights 1️⃣ Public investment creates private breakthroughs. The question is whether we still have the collective will to fund “moonshots” without a war. 2️⃣ Discipline and iteration — core military values — mirror the best startup cultures. Speed means nothing without structure. 3️⃣ Technology alone doesn’t secure nations — systems of trust do. The future of AI ethics may owe as much to the military code of conduct as to Silicon Valley. 4️⃣ Veterans are architects of resilience. They understand that redundancy is not waste — it’s insurance for complex systems. 5️⃣ If defense built the last internet, inclusion must build the next one. Equitable innovation is the true national security of the AI era. ⸻ 💬 Quote of the Day “Advances in artificial intelligence will change the character of warfare for generations to come. Whoever masters it first will have a decisive advantage on the battlefield.” — Mark T. Esper, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Nov 5 2019 ⸻ 🎬 Closing Thought As we honor veterans today, remember that the tools we use to create — from GPS to AI — were once tools of protection. The next frontier is to transform those tools into platforms for shared prosperity. The real battle of this century is not about who commands the code, but who ensures its conscience. Again, Happy Veterans Day, and thank you to the men and women whose sacrifice continues to shape our freedom — and our future. ⸻ ⚡ OHUBNext Daily Brief — investments, edge tech, and moves that matter. For 12 + years, OHUB has been building pathways to multi-generational wealth through exposure, skills, entrepreneurship, capital markets, and inclusive ecosystems.