Exclusive: Why Hill and Valley is defense tech's "Rosetta Stone"
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Christian Garrett, Delian Asparouhov and Jacob Helberg speak at the Hill and Valley Forum 2025. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for 137 Ventures
The Hill and Valley Forum sprang from an idea years ago for a 40-person get-together: four tables of 10 people discussing shared interests. Wednesday, it's cohosting an artificial intelligence summit in downtown Washington anchored by President Trump.
Why it matters: The group wields increasing influence at the intersection of policy, venture capital and American industry, including weapons production, at a time when powerful communities on the East and West coasts are getting cozy.
Driving the news: Axios interviewed Hill and Valley co-founders Jacob Helberg, Christian Garrett and Delian Asparouhov ahead of the "Winning the AI Race" event.
- The consensus? The opportunity to blunt China and ensure U.S. advantage is attractive to almost all political persuasions and business sectors.
The latest: Helberg, who was earlier this year nominated to be a top State Department economic policy and trade official, described Hill and Valley as "the Rosetta Stone," capable of translating the wants and needs of previously standoffish tribes.
- "Washington saw Silicon Valley as a collection of companies that acted as quasi-sovereigns, detached from national security priorities or detached from the national interest," he said. "Vast swaths of Silicon Valley at the time saw Washington as a nuisance and a roadblock to building transformative technologies."
- "While China had civil-military fusion, America had civil-military confusion."
Context: Wednesday's AI conference comes weeks after the Hill and Valley Forum confab at the Capitol, which drew some of the flashiest names in tech and politics.
- Speakers included Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as well as Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
What they're saying: "This is a unifying event, from a geographical perspective, among the U.S. and our allies. It is also a unifying event within Silicon Valley," said Garrett, who is also a partner at 137 Ventures.
- "People who usually compete with each other come together around this, and that obviously spreads to the D.C. dynamic."
- The 137 Ventures portfolio includes Anduril Industries, Hadrian, Ramp and SpaceX. Hadrian last week announced a $260 million raise and its factories-as-a-service model.
What we're watching: The ripple effects of the White House's AI action plan, expected to drop this week, on the Pentagon.
The bottom line: "This wasn't necessarily, from the get-go, meant to be this huge statement or intended to turn into this massive thing," said Asparouhov, also the co-founder of Varda Space Industries.
- "There were just a lot more companies that were being started up, and a lot more people that were turning their eye toward the national security community as somebody they really wanted to serve," he added.
- "I feel like we helped embolden that trend."
Go deeper: Tech's dance with the Pentagon speeds up
