Tech Diplomacy Now: The Trump Administration Unveils a New Golden Age of Science
The Trump Administration recently released a plan to renew the US's R&D strategy, de-emphasizing concentrated federal funding towards a model that rewards innovation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tech Diplomacy Updates
Top News of the Week
Latest News
Technology Strategy and Policy
Korea Corner
Artificial Intelligence
Telecommunications Networks and Infrastructure
Critical Minerals
Synthetic Biology
Quantum
Robotics
Advanced Aerospace Technology
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
Energy and Climate
Opinion and Commentary
The Last Word
Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue Brings Together U.S. and Mexico Leaders to Strengthen Chip Supply Chains and Train the Next Generation of Tech Leaders
Senior leaders from government, academia, and industry across the United States and Mexico convened to strengthen semiconductor supply chains, expand tech diplomacy training, and deepen cooperation on trusted technology across the Western Hemisphere.
Michelle Giuda on Bloomberg: We Will Win the AI Race with a Better Product at a Better Price
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Opinion: Cheaper, Faster AI Doesn’t Matter If Customers Can’t Trust It
All AI will be cheap soon. But regardless of price, AI answers still aren’t reliable enough for institutions to act on at scale. Krach Institute’s Len Khodorkovsky writes about the Actionability Gap in Bloomberg.
From Security to Silicon: Building a Trusted U.S.-Korea Tech Alliance
The U.S. and Korea are engaged in a difficult dispute over the treatment of an American company fined nearly half a billion dollars by South Korean regulators following a customer-data breach.
In his newest article, Paul Stahle, the Krach Institute’s Korea Trusted Tech and Trade Fellow, explores the rising economic and legal tensions between the Trans-Pacific partners, and identifies paths forward.
Meridian International Center’s Technology, Innovation and Space Program Deepens Commitment to Tech Diplomacy
Meridian International Center’s Center for Technology, Innovation and Space is expanding its footprint in global tech policy with a new partnership with the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. The collaboration is the latest step in Meridian’s deliberate effort to ensure that its diplomacy programming reflects the defining policy challenges of this moment, from artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to digital governance and emerging connectivity.
Top News of the Week – The Trump Administration Unveils a New Golden Age of Science
In late July, the Trump Administration released a bold plan to shift the way that Research and Development is done in the United States, away from a limited set of research universities that have built themselves around federal funding to a model that rewards innovation.
Key Points:
The new directive focuses pushing funding and support to individual scientists and researchers instead of continuing to pour funding with massive overhead to legacy institutions. It also seeks to organize federal funding around ambitious goals which integrate artificial intelligence to expand research activities.
The initiative also seeks to expand funding to regional clusters that have not traditionally received prioritization and to connect that to advanced manufacturing and commercialization to benefit communities rather than sending the fruits of taxpayer funded research to countries like China.
The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy teamed up with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that Departments and Agencies across the federal government execute this new guidance.
These changes will hit university labs that have come to expect that they are essentially the only beneficiaries of very generous federal R&D funding. Critics claim that this will further undermine the nation’s research universities, while supporters point to the slowing breakthroughs coming from a calcified set of institutions that have had little incentive to innovate their processes.
More on Background:
OSTP Director Releases Landmark Report and Recommendations for Renewing American Scientific Discovery – The White House, July 21, 2026
Science: A New Golden Age – Michael Kratsios, Office of Science and Technology Policy, July 2026
Ushering in a New Golden Age of American Innovation: Fiscal Year 2028 Administration Research and Development Budget Priorities – OSTP and OMB, July 21, 2026
White House report calls for big changes to ‘calcified’ U.S. science system – Science, July 22, 2026
White House Seeks to Steer More Research Funding Away from Academia – Inside Higher Ed, July 24, 2026
How will Trump’s new science strategy change US research? – Atlantic Council, July 27, 2026
Latest News
Several states report cyberattacks as spy agencies suspect Iran targeting water – The Washington Post, August 1, 2026
Chinese military researchers tap US AI models to train defence systems – Reuters, July 31, 2026
Commerce Dept. quietly announces 7 new equity stakes in private companies – The Hill, July 30, 2026
How Meta Got Everything It Wanted in a Secret Louisiana Data Center Deal – NYTs, July 27, 2026
Silicon Valley Splits Over Closing the Borders to Chinese A.I. – NYTs, July 25, 2026
Google Hit With $1 Billion Fine for Abusing Its Power in Europe – NYTs, July 23, 2026
Saudi Arabia “Strongly Condemns” Houthi Naval Blockade — Will Pakistan Finally Enter the War Against Iran-Backed Group? – Eurasian Times, July 21, 2026
Why Silicon Valley Can’t Stop Looking Over Its Shoulder at China – NYTs, July 20, 2026
World stocks fall in semiconductor rout; oil rises on Middle East escalation – Reuters, July 16, 2026
Technology Strategy and Policy
Commission starts enforcing AI Act rules and new transparency requirements on 2 August – European Commission, July 31, 2026
Italy picks a side on AI. Rome joins the U.S.-led Pax Silica – Decode39, July 30, 2026
EU launches AI Gigafactories call to boost Europe’s computing capacity – European Commission, July 29, 2026
Investment with Chinese characteristics: how Beijing’s money is reshaping tech ventures – SCMP, July 25, 2026
Treasury threatens sanctions after White House claims Moonshot distilled Anthropic’s Fable – TechCrunch, July 22, 2026
From “Apprentice” to Practitioner: China’s Export Control Regime Comes of Age – RSIS, July 16, 2026
White House details ‘Gold Eagle’ clearinghouse for AI cyber threats – Cyberscoop, July 14, 2026
White House Launches Gold Eagle Initiative for Unprecedented Cybersecurity Vulnerability Coordination – The White House, July 14, 2026
Korea Corner
From Security to Silicon: Building a Trusted U.S.-Korea Tech Alliance – Krach Institute, July 27, 2026
Korean-US Tech Giants Ink $950B Semiconductor, AI Pact – Chosun, July 27, 2026
Robot blowback in Korea and China growth slows – Design World, July 27, 2026
Hyundai outlines South Korea physical AI expansion – UPI, July 25, 2026
South Korea-US team unveils robotic technology that dresses the wearer – Reuters, July 16, 2026
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI finds evidence other AI agents escaped containment as it widens hacking probe – Reuters, July 31, 2026
Microsoft Unveils A.I. Cybersecurity Tools – NYTs, July 27, 2026
US models beat China’s Kimi K3 with a 76% score over 32% in cyber benchmarks, tests show – Interesting Engineering, July 25, 2026
Inside the White House debate over what to do about Chinese AI – Politico, July 23, 2026
When China Gets Its Own Mythos: Preparing for an AI Cyber Crisis – Foreign Affairs, July 22, 2026
OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital Library – NYTs, July 21, 2026
Kimi K3 open-weight model: China’s biggest AI is a bet on memory, not compute – AI News, July 20, 2026
Who’s Afraid of Chinese Models? – Stratechery, July 20, 2026
AI’s Wider Availability Is Good for China, Not Great for OpenAI and Anthropic – WSJ, July 17, 2026
Telecommunications Networks and Infrastructure
The Breakup Loop: Why the TikTok Algorithm May Keep You Heartbroken – NYTs, July 26, 2026
Oracle leads race to supply Japan with top-secret cloud services – FT, July 16, 2026
ZTE among Chinese firms licensed to purchase Nvidia’s H200 chips, documents show – Reuters, July 14, 2026
Data centers heat up Ohio Senate race – E&E News, July 14, 2026
Telecom bill vote might open Taiwan to Starlink – Taipei Times, July 14, 2026
Critical Minerals
Insight: Trump may need to allow Chinese minerals as US industry struggles to meet 2027 deadline – Reuters, July 27, 2026
China Wields Its Rare-Earths Leverage Over Europe with Export Controls – NYTs, July 24, 2026
Japan identifies large share of rare earths in deep-sea mud off remote island – Reuters, July 24, 2026
Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 – IEA, July 15, 2026
Synthetic Biology
Estonian Govt-Owned Company to Build $2.3M Synbio Plant for Novel Foods & Materials – Green Queen, July 27, 2026
AI Chatbots Know How to Make Deadly Biological Weapons. Some Will Teach You. – WSJ, July 25, 2026
The Scientist With 1,000 Patents Fueling a Drug Powerhouse – WSJ, July 24, 2026
How to stop China from leapfrogging the U.S. in biotech – WaPo, July 17, 2026
Synthetic biology may finally be ready to solve life’s biggest mystery – New Scientist, July 2, 2026
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Synthetic Biology, and Robotics Combine to Improve Enzymes – Department of Energy, July 1, 2026
Quantum
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to Build Supercomputer That Puts Quantum Computing to the Test – Carnegie Mellon University, July 27, 2026
New quantum chip architecture could use built-in vibrations to link distant qubits – Phys.org, July 27, 2026
Can consciousness be quantum? We may now have an answer – New Scientist, July 15, 2026
PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light – MIT Technology Review, July 14, 2026
Robotics
U.S. Robotics Leadership Is Not Guaranteed – Pirate wires, July 23, 2026
The Robots Cometh – Time, July 23, 2026
China’s XPeng Charts Course from EVs to Robots – WSJ, July 23, 2026
Volkswagen’s CARIZON and Horizon Robotics deepen self-driving partnership in China – Reuters, July 22, 2026
AUVSI CEO Testifies in Support of the GUARD Act to Counter China’s Robotics Playbook – AUVSI, July 22, 2026
Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Build a Robot Without China – NYTs, June 11, 2026
Unitree’s Impossible Trajectory Is Still Overlooked – SemiAnalysis, June 8, 2026
Advanced Aerospace Technology
Australia is flying blind on Chinese drone data – The Strategist, July 24, 2026
Startup Mass-Producing Cheap Killer Drones Wins $500 Million Army Contract – WSJ, July 14, 2026
Leaked Documents Reveal Possible Secret Russia-China Military Plan to Disable Starlink – United 24, July 9, 2026
Semiconductors and Microelectronics
China Begins Mass Production of Homegrown DUV Chip Tools – The Information, July 27, 2026
Chinese Chip Giant’s Stock Soars 470% in Start of Trading, Amid A.I. Race – NYTs, July 27, 2026
2026 State of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry – SIA, July 27, 2026
China begins making homegrown DUV chipmaking tools, The Information reports – Reuters, July 27, 2026
Intel debuts new chip for space computing – Space News, July 27, 2026
Intel Benefits from a New Shift in A.I. Spending – NYTs, July 23, 2026
Contract chipmaker TSMC to raise prices by up to 10% in 2027, sources say – Reuters, July 21, 2026
Energy and Climate
Why Restarting a Nuclear Power Plant Can Be Much Harder Than Expected – NYTs, July 27, 2026
Nuclear Energy Revival Puts Westinghouse in Prime Position – NYTs, July 23, 2026
The Key to Solar and Wind Power Is Battery Storage, and China Is Dominating – WSJ, July 19, 2026
The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry with It? – New York Times Magazine, July 15, 2026
Opinion and Commentary
Cheaper, Faster AI Doesn’t Matter if Customers Can’t Trust It – Bloomberg, July 30, 2026
The U.S. Is Still Winning the A.I. Race. Trump Could Blow It. – NYTs, July 27, 2026
America Still Has the Upper Hand Over China: Washington Can Win If It Works with Allies – Ben A. Vagle and Stephen G. Brooks, Foreign Affairs, July 24, 2026
China’s Questionable Tech Strategy – Michael Schuman, The Atlantic, July 19, 2026
The Return of the Taiwan Tiger – Chris Horton, The Wire China, July 19, 2026
Welcome to a Multidimensional Economic Disaster: The AI boom wasn’t built for the polycrisis. – Matteo Wong and Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, March 26, 2026
The Last Word
“We can only fully harness AI and its associated productivity uplift by boldly reforming our scientific institutions, building national-scale infrastructure, and ensuring rigorous verification of the knowledge base from which AI will learn.”
— Michael Kratsios, Director, White House Office of Science and Tech Policy
About: Tech Diplomacy Now
Technology is the crossroads and main battlefield of the four-dimensional diplomatic, economic, cultural and military contest between freedom and authoritarianism. Technology is either grounded in trusted democratic principles—respect for the rule of law, human rights, property, transparency, sovereignty and the environment—in order to advance freedom, or it is weaponized by authoritarian regimes and malign actors in order to control and oppress.
We believe technology must advance freedom.
The nonpartisan Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue is the preeminent global authority on Tech Statecraft, a new model of diplomacy that integrates high-tech strategies with foreign policy and national security tools to ensure trusted technology is used to advance freedom. We focus on rallying our allies, leveraging the innovation of the private sector, and amplifying democratic values based on trust, leveraged by Purdue University’s strength in innovation, deep expertise in technology, and global prowess in educating transformational leaders.
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