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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eric Schmidt.md
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@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The bulk of Schmidt's wealth derives from his roughly one-percent economic inter
### The Pentagon Advisory Boards
In March 2016 Defense Secretary [[Ash Carter]] appointed Schmidt to chair the newly created Defense Innovation Board, an advisory body bringing Silicon Valley figures to the Pentagon; he led it until 2020. The board's recommendations preceded the creation of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the department's adoption of agile software practices, and a set of AI ethical principles for the military. Schmidt remained a major holder of Alphabet stock throughout, and the [[Tech Transparency Project]] reported that his suggesting of technologies and vendors to the Pentagon stirred the concern of at least one government ethics official.[^3]
In March 2016 Defense Secretary [[Ash Carter]] appointed Schmidt to chair the newly created Defense Innovation Board, an advisory body bringing [[Silicon Valley]] figures to the Pentagon; he led it until 2020. The board's recommendations preceded the creation of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the department's adoption of agile software practices, and a set of AI ethical principles for the military. Schmidt remained a major holder of Alphabet stock throughout, and the [[Tech Transparency Project]] reported that his suggesting of technologies and vendors to the Pentagon stirred the concern of at least one government ethics official.[^3]
In 2018 Schmidt was named chairman of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a congressionally chartered body cochaired with the former deputy defense secretary [[Robert Work]], which ran until 2021. Its March 2021 final report concluded that the United States was not prepared to defend against or compete with [[China]] in AI and urged that the Defense Department and intelligence community become "AI-ready" by 2025. CNBC reported in October 2022 that roughly five months after his appointment Schmidt made a seed investment in an AI logistics startup named Beacon, the first of several direct investments in AI companies he made during his commission tenure, while continuing to hold billions of dollars in Alphabet stock; government ethics advisers told the network the arrangement presented a significant conflict of interest, though there was no indication he broke any rule.[^4][^5]
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ In 2018 Schmidt was named chairman of the National Security Commission on Artifi
Schmidt invests through several entities: the venture firm Innovation Endeavors, the earlier Tomorrow Ventures, and his family office Hillspire LLC, which manages his fortune and from which his AI startup investments have been tracked. CNBC reported in January 2025 that his family-office apparatus had backed 22 private AI firms since 2019. Among his national-security holdings is [[Rebellion Defense]], an AI defense-software company launched in 2019 with backing that included Innovation Endeavors.[^2][^3]
His firms also hold positions in companies that profit from the emerging technologies he advocated to the government, including 5G and quantum computing, and he is executive chairman of the AI investment firm Steel Perlot. In 2021 Schmidt's foundation money helped seed America's Frontier Fund, a public-private investment vehicle modeled on the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] arm [[In-Q-Tel]] of the kind his own commission had recommended, run by the former In-Q-Tel chief executive Gilman Louie and staffed partly by former Schmidt Futures personnel. His charitable money also flowed toward China: while chairing the AI commission, his private foundation put nearly 17 million dollars into a fund feeding the Chinese private-equity group Hillhouse Capital, which holds an extensive portfolio of Chinese AI companies.[^3][^4]
His firms also hold positions in companies that profit from the emerging technologies he advocated to the government, including 5G and quantum computing, and he is executive chairman of the AI investment firm Steel Perlot. In 2021 Schmidt's foundation money helped seed America's Frontier Fund, a public-private investment vehicle modeled on the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] arm [[In-Q-Tel]] of the kind his own commission had recommended, run by the former In-Q-Tel chief executive [[Gilman Louie]] and staffed partly by former Schmidt Futures personnel. His charitable money also flowed toward China: while chairing the AI commission, his private foundation put nearly 17 million dollars into a fund feeding the Chinese private-equity group Hillhouse Capital, which holds an extensive portfolio of Chinese AI companies.[^3][^4]
### The Anthropic Investment
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ The Series A was a small fraction of Schmidt's broader AI footprint. Through Hil
### The OSTP Salary Controversy
A March 2022 Politico investigation by Alex Thompson reported that Schmidt Futures had quietly paid the salaries of staff working inside the White House [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]] under its director [[Eric Lander]], President [[Joe Biden]]'s science adviser. Schmidt Futures' chief innovation officer [[Tom Kalil]] remained on Schmidt's payroll for four months while serving ostensibly as an unpaid consultant at the office, and the philanthropy indirectly paid the salary of the office's chief of staff Marc Aidinoff for about six weeks. More than a dozen people in the roughly 140-person office had ties to Schmidt.[^6][^7]
A March 2022 Politico investigation by Alex Thompson reported that Schmidt Futures had quietly paid the salaries of staff working inside the [[White House]] [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]] under its director [[Eric Lander]], President [[Joe Biden]]'s science adviser. Schmidt Futures' chief innovation officer [[Tom Kalil]] remained on Schmidt's payroll for four months while serving ostensibly as an unpaid consultant at the office, and the philanthropy indirectly paid the salary of the office's chief of staff Marc Aidinoff for about six weeks. More than a dozen people in the roughly 140-person office had ties to Schmidt.[^6][^7]
The arrangement alarmed the office's general counsel Rachel Wallace, who raised what reporting described as significant ethical concerns given Schmidt's financial interests in AI and other areas overlapping the office's work. Lander resigned in February 2022 after a separate Politico report found credible evidence he had bullied Wallace and violated workplace standards. Schmidt called the salary story "largely false," saying its thesis of undue influence over the office was "unsubstantiated."[^6][^7]