Stanford DEFCON

October 22 @ Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA

Leaders of the tech and defense worlds came together at Stanford University at the SVDG co-sponsored Stanford DEFCON. From high level keynote addresses by Applied Intuition’s Qasar Younis, former SecDef Mark Esper, and A16Z’s Marc Andreessen, to panels on Prime-Startup collaboration and the Ukrainian battlefield, the 2025 edition of DEFCON was a great success.

Following the conference, SVDG organized a highly-curated policy salon dinner, which brought together the SVDG network and select DEFCON guests for a night of reflection on the lessons learned from the day. We were joined by individuals with very different backgrounds but all motivated by a will to advance the technical advantage of allied democracies.

We appreciate all who joined us in Palo Alto for both events, and the Stanford team who put in the time and effort to put together a large conference with impressive panels.