America’s Frontier Fund

The organization has described itself as “the nation’s first deep-tech fund that invests for the national interest” and “the first investment platform committed to reinvigorating our nation’s innovation and manufacturing prowess.” ¹

Background

America’s Frontier Fund was assembled by former Google CEO and left-of-center donor Eric Schmidt and PayPal co-founder and right-of-center donor Peter Thiel to invest in domestic microchip manufacturing in a wider geopolitical struggle against China’s attempt to corner the semiconductor market. Schmidt and Thiel were joined by former government officials like Obama administration Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter and Trump administration National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, and the group has met with members of Congress to request about $1 billion in federal funds for the project. ¹

While primarily interested in reviving domestic chip manufacturing, America’s Frontier Fund also aims through financial investments to foster research and development in microelectronics, artificial intelligence, and quantum science and technology. ²

Criticism

In June 2022, the New York Times criticized America’s Frontier Fund and its backers for asking “American taxpayers” to “help foot the bill” for expanding private sector chipmaking capacity. ¹

In December 2022, Politico published an exclusive report on Eric Schmidt and his financial connections to the Biden administration. Specifically, it reported that Schmidt, who had allegedly been seeking to have influence over the U.S. government’s science policy and the White House’s in particular, was supplying funds to the Biden White House via a Federation of American Scientists (FAS) fellowship program to pay for the salaries of more than twenty officials on its payroll involved in science policy. Schmidt’s aim, the article alleged, was to become one of the main players in American federal research and investment in artificial intelligence technology, despite pro-privacy activists and tech skeptics sounding the alarm on the field. ³

The report drew a further connection between Schmidt and FAS by noting that FAS chair Gilman Louie is also the chief executive officer of America’s Frontier Fund, a group which Schmidt funds. Louie, a venture capitalist, has been the chair of the Federation of American Scientists since 2009 and the CEO of AFF since 2021. The Fund is funded by Schmidt Futures and Schmidt is responsible for supplying more than a quarter of its total operating costs. ³

Leadership

Venture capitalist and former video game executive Gilman Louie is the chief executive of America’s Future Fund. Louie led In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture firm based in Arlington, Virginia and backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to advise the CIA and other federal intelligence agencies on keeping their technology up to date and enhancing their information technology capacities. ^{1 4}

In May 2022, President Joe Biden named Gilman Louie to his Intelligence Advisory Board. ^{3 5}

Jordan Blashek is the president and chief operating officer. He was the vice president of business formation at Schmidt Futures, overseeing its national security, tech platforms, and economic competitiveness programs. Previously, he was the founding chairman of the Chief of Staff Association and a venture partner at J-Ventures Fund. ⁶

Michele Flournoy, a former Undersecretary of Defense Policy in the Obama administration and co-founder of federal consultancy WestExec Advisors, is a member of the board of America’s Future Fund. ⁷