AI war in Iran has brought conflict to Silicon Valley. No one is ready |
Opinion
AI war in Iran has brought conflict to Silicon Valley. No one is ready
Iranian strikes on Qatar cut global helium exports, threatening semiconductor supply chains
By Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (ret.) Fox News
Published March 30, 2026 5:00am EDT
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Iran Navy leader reportedly KILLED in strike
Trey Yingst reports that Iran's Navy commander who authorized the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was killed in a strike overnight.
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For years, Silicon Valley operated as if war was someone else’s problem. Operation Epic Fury proved otherwise. The U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, launched Feb. 28, pulled American technology companies to the center of active warfare — not as distant suppliers, but as participants and now deliberate targets. In my forthcoming book, "The New AI Cold War," I warned this moment was coming. Iran made it real.
AI is running the kill chain
CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper said it plainly in a March 11 video update: AI tools help U.S. forces sift through vast data in seconds so commanders make decisions faster than the enemy can react. Tasks that once took days now take seconds. Humans still approve the final targets. However, the machine does the analysis.
At the heart of that process is Palantir’s Maven Smart System, running on Anthropic’s Claude. NBC News confirmed that Palantir’s AI identified potential targets in ongoing strikes. The Washington Post reported AI enabled U.S. forces to hit 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours.
MORE THAN 90% OF IRANIAN MISSILES INTERCEPTED, BUT A DANGEROUS IMBALANCE IS EMERGING
Retired Admiral Mark Montgomery told CBS News the military now processes roughly a thousand targets a day with turnaround under four hours — a pace no previous campaign has matched. Palantir CEO Alex Karp confirmed on CNBC that Claude is still running inside the targeting system despite the supply chain designation.
Artificial intelligence is a big factor in the Iran war and Iran realizes it. (iStock)
As I document in "The New AI Cold War," that shift is........