Bismarck Brief

The Pentagon Attempts to Crack China's Rare Earths Monopoly

Rare earth elements are key to modern industrial, consumer, and military technology. China's dominance in rare earths mining, refining, and…

Apr 8 • Samo Burja

17

Why Neoclouds Are Vital to AI Startups

Commodity compute is key to making new AI research breakthroughs. AI startups and Nvidia have allied with financial firms to prevent this commodity from…

Apr 1 • Samo Burja

9

March 2026

Meta Attempts to Build Frontier AI Models

The world's largest social media company has the funds to build vast data centers and hire world-class talent. Mark Zuckerberg's goals in artificial…

Mar 18 • Samo Burja

12

1

The Iran Energy Crisis

Iran has responded to U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the oil-rich Gulf states. A prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz threatens severe…

Mar 12 • Samo Burja

21

4

Starlink’s Economic and Military Potential

Elon Musk's SpaceX is now earning most of its revenues from its satellite internet constellation. This technology is the first new major commercial…

Mar 4 • Samo Burja

29

February 2026

AI 2026: Cohere is Canada’s Artificial Intelligence Champion

Founded by young pioneering AI researchers, the company today pursues enterprise software revenue rather than frontier capabilities.

Feb 25 • Samo Burja

16

January 2026

Elon Musk’s Frontier AI Lab

xAI is the world's third-most valuable AI startup and Elon Musk's personal frontier AI lab. It is already playing a load-bearing role in the future…

Jan 28 • Samo Burja

23

1

AI 2026: China’s Super-App Giant ByteDance Bets On AI Smartphones

The parent company of TikTok is one of the world's most profitable companies and is exploring how to leverage AI to dominate the next iteration of…

Jan 21 • Samo Burja

10

1

Tesla’s Self-Driving is Betting on the Scaling Hypothesis

Elon Musk's plan to own virtually all terrestrial transportation by providing low-cost self-driving vehicles is proceeding steadily, if late. It…

Jan 16 • Samo Burja

21

2

AI 2026: Andrej Karpathy’s Next Big Project

The OpenAI cofounder and former head of Tesla's self-driving division is a skilled engineer and public communicator who is now focused on using AI to…

Jan 7 • Samo Burja

11

2

December 2025

AI 2026: Data Centers Restart Growth of a Stagnant U.S. Electrical Grid

Optimism about artificial intelligence has driven a massive new wave of construction to house the chips AI depends on. The energy required to power…

Dec 31, 2025 • Samo Burja

17

1

7 New Insights From 2025 at Bismarck Brief

In 2025, our analysts wrote nearly a quarter of a million words on new technologies, global industry, and live players. Here are 7 key insights from our…

Dec 30, 2025 • Samo Burja

34

3