The defense industry has SXSW surrounded

Politico

11-03-2025

With help from Alfred Ng
South by Southwest is underway in Austin this week, the 37th edition of the tech, music and film festival. This year, however, is the first since SXSW ended sponsorships from the U.S. Army and weapons makers.
The defense industry had been attending the conference since it became a linchpin of the global tech-conference circuit — a relationship that abruptly ended last year, after attendees protested the U.S. Army sponsoring last year's events while America backed Israel in its war in Gaza.
That doesn't mean the defense sector has disappeared from Austin. On the contrary: Austin has become a near-split screen, as multiple defense tech confabs have sprung up to make the increasingly lucrative connection between innovation and the armed forces.
Tectonic Defense, a publication focused on defense tech, hosted a new two-day conference on March 10 and 11. Austin4America launched for the first time late last week. They joined more established meetings including Space and Defense Innovation and 'Disruptive Defense' powered by the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit, AFWERX and NAVALX.
It's a physical manifestation of a rift over the role of the American tech industry: Should Silicon Valley, with a long history of counterculture West Coast politics, keep its innovation separate from the military? Or does the industry have a patriotic or even profit imperative to contribute to the armed forces?
The question is gaining new energy as tech leaders ally themselves with the Trump administration, and as veterans of defense startups like Palantir and Anduril join the administration.
For years, with progressive values ascendant in Silicon Valley, military connections to the mainstream tech industry became increasingly fraught. In 2018, employee protests at Google drove the company to withdraw from Project Maven, which was intended to use AI to analyze drone footage at the Pentagon. This year — as tech companies tack to the political right, that dustup seems like ancient history. In February, Google dropped its commitment not to use AI for weapons.
Before the policy change, SXSW had long served as a place where the two worlds met. South by Southwest started in 1987 as a music gathering, and tech was added to the offerings almost a decade later. Nick Barbaro, one of the founders of SXSW, said the military was involved early; 'they had Army bands coming here from our second and third year,' he said.
But last year, sponsorship by the Army drew a backlash. Dozens of artists withdrew from the festival to protest U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza, which was sparked by a deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. In response, the festival announced it was 'revising our sponsorship model' and said 'the US Army, and companies who engage in weapons manufacturing, will not be sponsors of SXSW 2025.'
Barbaro said, 'there were a lot of mixed feelings about how we ought to deal with that. I don't personally think there's anything wrong with the Army being here as a sponsor, but the timing was very poor. It was right as Gaza was happening.'
The decision was 'disappointing,' said Lt. Col. Jamie Dobson, spokesperson of the Austin-based Army Futures Command that focuses on ensuring that soldiers 'remain at the forefront of technological innovation and warfighting ability.'
Her organization sent reps to three of the four alternate conferences: Tectonic, Austin4America, and Space and Defense.
'The relationship for us is critically important. It's not just that we want to do business. We want the relationship with them because tech is evolving so quickly that we can't just buy what they're selling today. We want to know what they're planning three generations down the line, she said.
Now, as the defense tech ecosystem is forced out of SXSW, it is growing. One roundup by Distinctive Edge Partners, which organizes Space and Defense Innovation, found more than 100 panels spread across 18 venues handling defense and space, with the vast majority having nothing to do with SXSW except timing.
Newly founded Tectonic Defense held its event over March 10 and 11. Industry speakers included reps from Palantir, Anduril, General Catalyst and Skydio; the military sent speakers from an alphabet soup of agencies and offices, including DARPA and the Defense Innovation Unit.
Disruptive Defense, convened by the Defense Innovation Unit at the Pentagon along with NAVALX and AFWERX, drew more than 3,000 people to its sixth annual meeting, a spokesperson said.
A third defense tech summit called Austin4America started this year as well— specifically because SXSW had kicked out the military, founder Luke Fischer told DFD. He said about 1700 people signed up 'with a large number' attending.
Barbaro, the SXSW co-founder, said the bifurcation was not total. 'Our relationship with the Army has not gone away,' he said. 'We're not banning them.'
There's cross-pollination; several South by attendees planned to attend outside defense events as well, he said. Still, Barbaro said the status quo, where his festival can focus on tech and culture while defense and weapons take the stage elsewhere is 'probably the best result for us.'
As the two threads spin out separately in Austin, some tech figures are actively trying to tie them back together. Bryce Mitchell, an Air Force veteran and an MBA student at Stanford University, said he co-founded the university's DEFCON Student Network last year to bridge between tech and defense, and he said the war in Ukraine had proven that Silicon Valley must serve U.S. security interests.
He told DFD he wasn't attending SXSW, but he saw its stepping away from the military as out of date.
'In some ways Silicon Valley has passed its Project Maven moment,' Bryce said. 'Those days are behind us.'
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