Memos to the President

Secretary Work is widely credited for his work with leaders in the Department and the Intelligence Community on the “Third Offset Strategy,” which aimed to restore U.S. conventional overmatch over its strategic rivals and adversaries.

His career is one marked by service to his country and is truly admirable. Our wide-ranging discussion covered AI and the future of warfare, the Third Offset Strategy, and strategic guidance for the Secretary of Defense in a new administration.

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

SemiAnalysis’s Dylan Patel sits down with SCSP CEO Ylli Bajraktari to discuss the future of supercomputing clusters. #ComputeSummit 

The Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI+Summit Series is a set of high-level events dedicated to enabling rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) as it transforms our country and becomes a keystone of our national security. 

The AI+ Compute & Connectivity Summit, the third in this series, took place on March 6, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Sustaining U.S. leadership in large-scale AI systems requires accelerated innovation in compute and access to fast, secure connectivity. By convening a diverse group of innovators, policymakers, industry leaders, and academic experts, SCSP’s AI+ Compute & Connectivity Summit provided a forum to address critical policy challenges and showcase cutting-edge technologies.

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

The Talent Memo outlines strategic initiatives to compete and succeed in a world driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and unprecedented technological change. A fundamental transformation of education and workforce policies is necessary to build the talent pipeline necessary for maintaining America’s leadership in critical technology sectors.

1. Secure Global Leadership for Technology Talent
2. Empower the American Workforce for Technological Transformation
3. Modernize Institutions for the Digital Age
4. Transform U.S. Education and Training Through Strategic Technology Integration
5. Build and Sustain a Highly Skilled Public Sector Technology Workforce to Meet National Needs

Read the Full Memo Here: https://scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/talent/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

The Microelectronics Memo outlines strategic initiatives to complement manufacturing expansion with moonshots in next-generation microelectronics technologies, powering future defense platforms and large-scale AI systems.     

1. Achieve Massive Increases in AI Energy Efficiency – Ensure the United States wins the race to build post-Moore’s Law hardware to power large-scale AI systems.
    
2. Expand Opportunities for Chip Startups – Prioritize disruptive innovation by creating a “atoms-to-architectures pipeline” to take breakthroughs to market.
    
3. Defend Positional Advantages – Protect U.S. firms from China’s predatory economic practices and mitigate security threats during chip design, fabrication, and packaging.

Read the Full Memo Here: https://scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/semiconductors/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

The Advanced Networks Memo outlines four strategic recommendations to reclaim American leadership in network technologies and secure a competitive edge in the 5G and impending 6G races. This agenda calls for bold actions to boost innovation, streamline regulatory processes, dominate emerging concepts, and reposition the United States as the global leader in next-generation communications in the following ways:      

1. Forge a Path to U.S. Preeminence in Network Technology:Accelerate innovation by eliminating bureaucratic hurdles and leveraging private sector capabilities to rapidly deploy secure, next-generation infrastructure. This objective is designed to counter China’s dominance by significantly upgrading our network base—from LEO satellite constellations to advanced data centers and robust cybersecurity frameworks—thereby reasserting American leadership on the global stage.
    
2. Lead in Advanced 5G Applications:Catalyze transformative breakthroughs by integrating AI with 5G, driving efficiencies across defense, manufacturing, healthcare, and beyond. By establishing a vibrant ecosystem for AI-powered 5G innovations, the United States can reinforce economic strength and enhance national security, ensuring that our technological edge propels us ahead of our adversaries.
    
3. Position for 6G Development: Invest proactively in early-stage research, talent development, and the creation of a “6G America” initiative to dominate the future of communication technologies. This forward-looking approach empowers the United States to shape and lead the next technological revolution, ensuring that we remain at the cutting edge of global network advancements for decades to come.
    
4. Assert U.S. Leadership in Advanced Networks Globally: Forge strategic alliances with allies to co-develop secure network technologies and establish international standards that reflect American values. By expanding trusted network initiatives from the first Trump Administration and incentivizing the global phase-out of Chinese equipment, this objective ensures that U.S. technological superiority and security imperatives define the future global network landscape.

Read the Full Memo Here: https://scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/networks/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

This memo outlines a plan to ensure the United States remains a global leader in quantum computing, through focused technological innovation, strategic organizational changes, and proactive policy measures.

To secure U.S. leadership in quantum computing, the following priorities must be addressed:

• Achieve and Sustain Quantum Leadership: Moving out as a nation involves two organizational moves. First, the United States must prioritize quantum computing research and development through the promotion of the National Quantum Initiative. And second, additional federal funding is needed to ensure first-mover advantage in quantum computing which will directly impact critical sectors and the future of national security and economic growth.
• Accelerate Public-Private Collaboration: A quantum moonshot and greater systematic collaboration to out-learn rival nations is needed to be more competitive. A moonshot naturally brings players together for a specific national security achievement. Existing collaborations like the Quantum Economic Development Consortium and Elevate Quantum (a national tech hub) are a promising start, but increased and systematic intra-governmental collaboration would place the nation on a more competitive footing.
• Protect Quantum Security and Resilience: The United States must take proactive measures to view quantum information science as an “offensive and defensive” domain. One step would be establishing an offensive capabilities unit via the National Quantum Initiative or relevant agency. The focus would be to secure quantum technologies from adversarial threats and ensure the security of critical systems vulnerable to quantum-enabled cyberattacks.

A Bold Vision for Quantum Leadership

By small organization moves, an audacious goal, increased collaboration, and an offensive mindset, the United States can strengthen and sustain its leadership in quantum technologies, ensuring national security and economic prosperity for generations to come.

Read the Full Memo Here: https://scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/quantum

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

Michèle served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012, and serves as one of SCSP's Board of Advisors. Together, they discuss AI and the future of warfare, the U.S.-China-Taiwan security dynamic, and strategic guidance for the Secretary of Defense. 

They reference the following article, AI is Already at War, Foreign Affairs.

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

This memo outlines a new alliance structure to advance America's qualitative technology advantage in a global technology competition along the following objectives: 

1. Identify and organize the most capable and secure partners to innovate and develop critical technologies before U.S. rivals.
2. Safeguard access to critical technologies that are sensitive for national security.
3. Establish broader partnerships to develop and build out safe and secure technology applications to promote shared prosperity. 
4. Prevent rivals from gaining any technology advantage in this competition.

Read the full memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/alliesandpartners/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

In our Episode 13, SCSP's Addis Goldman and Brady Helwig highlight the key objectives of the newest Memo to the President all about revitalizing U.S. advanced manufacturing capabilities in a new Trump Administration. 

Together, they outline a strategy to reestablish U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing through targeted technology development, organizational reforms, and national policy interventions in the following  ways: 

• Drive AI-Enabled Innovation in Advanced Manufacturing
• Reorganize and Scale the Manufacturing Policy Ecosystem
• Forge National Policies to Drive Technology Adoption

Read the full memo here: https://scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/advanced-manufacturing

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

They discuss China's DeepSeek AI model release and the challenges the US's perceived lead in the field.  This necessitates a shift in US national security strategy, including assuming worst-case scenarios about adversary AI capabilities, bolstering defenses for US AI infrastructure, and developing policies to address the proliferation of foreign AI models.  Furthermore, the US must adopt a comprehensive approach beyond export controls, incorporating diplomatic, intelligence, and defense actions, while also recognizing the potential for a bifurcated digital world with competing AI ecosystems.

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

SCSP expands upon it's AI+Robotics Summit held in October 2024, identifying actions to secure U.S. leadership at the convergence of AI and robotics. Watch the full event here.

Objectives in the Robotics Memo:

1. Set national-level technology goals for robotics that ensure U.S. leadership in development, deployment, and responsible use, driving economic growth, enhancing national security, and improving quality of life.
2. Accelerate the adoption of robotics and embodied AI across U.S. industries to enhance competitiveness and strengthen the American workforce.
3. Achieve strategic independence for the U.S. robotics industry, ensuring a resilient domestic ecosystem capable of leading innovation, production, and deployment without undue reliance on any country of concern, especially China.

Read the full memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/robotics/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

In 2017, Schadlow was instrumental in drafting President Trump's NSS. She emphasizes that the document's straightforward approach was intentional and aligned with Trump's clear vision for American interests. The NSS focused on four pillars: protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity, preserving peace through strength, and advancing American influence. Notably, the document identified China as a strategic competitor, a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy.

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

Our latest SCSP Substack discusses the implications of DeepSeek’s R-1, a new large language model (LLM) developed by a PRC AI firm. The model has matched the performance of leading U.S. closed models at much lower compute costs, challenging the U.S.'s assumed technological leadership.

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

This episode focuses on the actions that will maximize AI's contributions to economic competitiveness, societal wellbeing, and national security while removing bureaucratic barriers to innovation. 

• Chart a path for AI development that protects the American people and national security.
• Streamline regulations for emerging technologies.
• Prioritize high-consequence use cases.
• Implementing a national data strategy that treats data as a strategic asset for innovation and security.

Read the full memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/governance-2/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

We want to ensure the U.S. military opens up a commanding lead in innovation and lethality by doing the following: 

1. Forge the World’s Most Dominant Fighting Force by Organizing and Equipping the Department of Defense for Unrivaled Lethality and Technological Supremacy;
2. Seize and Hold the Commanding Ground in AI and Digital Warfare to Guarantee American Leadership in the Defining Battlespace of the 21st Century; and
3. Resurrect American Industrial Might by Building a 21st Century Arsenal of Democracy to Secure Our Technological and Military Edge.

Read the full report here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/defense-2/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

This memo outlines a set of ambitious goals for reforming the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) that, if achieved, would position the IC to adapt to the coming wave of revolutionary technological change and improve its ability to protect the nation’s economic competitiveness in the decades ahead.

Given the IC’s crucial role in securing the homeland and supporting the United States’ ability to pursue its strategic goals, it must revolutionize its approach to its work and better address the importance of national techno-economic competitiveness. In doing so, it should reorient itself to fulfill five objectives:

1. Elevate the collection and analysis of foreign technology capabilities and economic threats to a top priority;
2. Establish a new and fully funded institutional home for Open Source Intelligence;
3. Prioritize the formation of strategic intelligence alliances to dominate the techno-economic advantage;
4. Provide the President with the means to push back against hybrid warfare threats; and
5. Transform the future IC workforce.

Read the full memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/intelligence-2/

In the episode, Chip and Ylli discuss a previous Substack SCSP's Intel team released called A Day in the Life of an AI-Augmented Analyst. Read it here: https://scsp222.substack.com/p/day-in-the-life-of-an-ai-augmented

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

Given the critical nature of this decade to solidify American economic prosperity, social well-being, and global leadership, the United States should orient itself around three main objectives to dominate the technology stack of the future:

1. Achieve and Maintain Leadership in Foundational Technologies. The United States must achieve and maintain a clear lead in the foundational technologies that will underpin the future economy and military power. This includes artificial intelligence (AI), advanced compute and microelectronics, advanced networks, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and next-generation energy. Leadership in these technologies will be critical to fostering the next-generation of innovations that will shape the geopolitical competition for the years to come.
2. Build a Resilient and Secure Technology Stack. The United States needs to foster an innovation ecosystem that both facilitates new discoveries and secures our inventions from external shocks and adversarial exploitation.
3. Mobilize the Nation for a Technological Transformation. The United States must foster a society-wide effort to drive technological progress, similar to the national mobilization seen during the Space Race of the mid-twentieth century. This requires a renewed focus on people and talent, cutting bureaucratic red tape, and returning to a risk-taking innovation culture that will enable America to out maneuver and outpace China.

Read the Full Memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/future-tech/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

This episode discusses not one, but two, new memos released by SCSP. 

The first memo outlines a strategic framework for the United States to lead the evolving international techno-economic order, characterized by rapid technological advancements and intensifying geopolitical competition. We believe the United States must leverage its strengths to shape this new order and advance its economic and national security interests. To effectively navigate this evolving landscape, the United States must pursue a comprehensive strategy with the following core objectives:

1. Promote American-led Technology Platforms to Counter People’s Republic of China (PRC) Alternatives;
2. Rally Allies to Deny Revisionist Powers Access to Strategic Technologies; and
3. Rebuild International Trade for a Fragmented World.

Read the Techno-Economic Order Memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/economy/

In order to modernize the Department of Commerce for strategic competition, we outline key recommendations in the second memo for restructuring the Department of Commerce to advance U.S. economic and national security interests. Our goals are clear, DOC needs to:

1. Supercharge the Department of Commerce to Lead America’s AI Future
2. Bolster Techno-Economic Intelligence Capabilities
3. Position the U.S. Industrial Base for Techno-Industrial Competition
4. Organize the Bureau of Industry and Security for Tech Rivalry
5. Retool the International Trade Administration

Read the DOC Memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/department-of-commerce/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

The United States must act decisively to maintain its global leadership in the face of rising challenges from the People's Republic of China (PRC) and other authoritarian powers. This memo outlines five key objectives to ensure U.S. victory, focusing on:

• Expand American-led technology platforms globally: The United States should secure critical technology platforms by partnering with allies and launch an American "tech package" initiative to counter the PRC's Digital Silk Road and demonstrate that the U.S. can offer more than just cheap infrastructure.
• Integrate the private sector into foreign policy: The U.S. government needs a new paradigm of public-private alignment to leverage the reach, ingenuity, and resources of the American technology sector as critical enablers of U.S. foreign policy to advance national interests in the global competition.
• Reignite the Allies+Maximum Pressure campaign: The United States must organize its allies and partners to curtail adversaries' access to critical technologies and protect shared technology ecosystems, using offensive tools like joint export controls and defensive measures like reciprocal trade policies.
• Champion a 'Disruptive Freedom' agenda: To push back against authoritarian influence, the United States should invest in technologies that promote free expression in closed environments, build coalitions with emerging democracies on championing new ideas of freedom, and develop a whole-of-government strategic communications approach.
• Transform U.S. foreign policy institutions: Transformational change is needed at the State Department and across the foreign policy apparatus, including appointing a Presidential Envoy for Tech Competition, restructuring the Department to put technology at the core, and building a new "joint" National Security Service workforce.

Key questions addressed:

1. How can the United States push back against the PRC's growing tech spheres of influence?
2. What new public-private partnerships, talent pipelines, and institutional reforms are needed to leverage American innovation for international advantage?
3. How can the U.S. harness emerging technologies to champion freedom and counter authoritarian influence in the global battle of ideas?

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.  

We argue, the United States must act decisively to maintain its lead in the critical emerging field of developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This memo outlines key steps to ensure U.S. dominance in AGI, focusing on:

• Accelerating AGI development: Launching "moonshot" programs akin to the Apollo Program, Manhattan Project, and Operation Warp Speed to drive rapid innovation.
• Securing necessary resources: Implementing robust short and long-term funding strategies and infrastructure investments.
• Establishing offensive and defensive strategies: Protecting U.S. AGI technologies while mitigating potential threats.

Key questions addressed:

• How can the United States maintain its edge in the face of China's growing AGI capabilities?
• What organizational structures and funding mechanisms will best support AGI development?
• How can the United States proactively address the national security implications of AGI?

Read the full Memo here: https://www.scsp.ai/reports/memostothepresident/artificial-general-intelligence/

Memos to the President Podcast is a product of the Special Competitive Studies Project.