Valley of Death

“Absorbing…The existential question, Weinberger suggests, is no longer whether Silicon Valley will serve America, but whether the US state is in fact serving the Valley…Valley of Death, well-researched and thorough, somehow makes the topic of defence procurement gripping. And crucially, Weinberger lets neither side off the hook.”–Telegraph
“Superb… Weinberger is especially good at debunking the Palantir mystique, much of which was based on Karp’s flair for marketing, insinuation, and deception….The biggest questions for readers of Weinberger’s exposé are simple: Does the massive investment in new defense-related start-ups make Americans safer? Can national security be reconciled with corporate profit? As Weinberger makes plain, the tech entrepreneurs–all male–who populate her narrative have vanishingly little sense of accountability.”–The Los Angeles Review of Books
“Sharon Weinberger’s eye-popping new book pulls the curtain back on the biggest military story of our time: how, for the first time in US history, the most cutting-edge weapons and technologies are being developed not in Pentagon labs by government scientists but by private individuals and Silicon Valley startups, who don’t always have our country’s best interests at heart. It’s an alarming tale, deeply reported and filled with colorful characters, with profound implications for our security, our democracy, and our future.”–Garrett M. Graff, author of Raven Rock and The Only Plane in the Sky
“The military-industrial complex is changing fast, and this riveting book captures the earthquake in vivid detail. It’s a shocking story about big money, military might, and a technological revolution that will change our country and the future of war. A masterwork of investigative reporting that reveals a network of billionaires and power brokers at the heart of American empire.”–Christopher Leonard, author of Kochland and The Lords of Easy Money
“There is no more pressing national security issue than the role that artificial intelligence will play in the future of warfare–and there is nobody better to explain it than Sharon Weinberger. Charting the growth of a Silicon Valley-military-intelligence complex that has alarming implications for how the country fight wars, not to mention for American democracy itself, Valley of Death is a must read.”–Michael Isikoff, co-author of Russian Roulette

Sharon Weinberger has been writing on national security issues for more than twenty-five years. She was the National Security Editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2022 to 2026 and has also contributed to The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Washington Post, among other outlets.

She is the author of:

• The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World
• A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry
• Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon’s Scientific Underworld

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, MIT’s Knight Science Journalism program, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She lives in Washington, DC.

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