Latest / Connecting the Dots / Quantum Investment Boom, AI Policy Reversal, and Big Tech's Impact

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Quantum Investment Boom, AI Policy Reversal, and Big Tech's Impact · Connecting the Dots

• 0:00
  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
• 0:03
  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfl Solutions
• 0:06
  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
• 0:09
  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
• 0:14
  hosts. Imagine you're holding the blueprint to
• 0:18
  the future in one hand. A technology so powerful
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  it could cure diseases in days or, you know,
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  completely rewrite national security. The question
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  is, Do you build it as fast as humanly possible
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  to beat your rivals or do you lock it in a vault
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  until you understand exactly how it works? Yeah,
• 0:36
  that is really the defining tension of our era.
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  I mean, we crave the speed of innovation, but
• 0:42
  we are increasingly terrified of the blind spots.
• 0:46
  Welcome to Connecting the Dots, the daily show
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  from Snarful Solutions Group that breaks down
• 0:50
  tech news and its everyday impact. I'm Alex.
• 0:53
  And I'm Morgan. Today is Friday, May 22, 2026,
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  and we are broadcasting to you live from a beautiful,
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  sunny Sacramento, California. We've got an incredible
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  lineup for you today, getting into the heart
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  of how governments and billionaires are fighting
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  over the speed of technology. It is a packed
• 1:07
  show. It really is. But first, let's get you
• 1:09
  caught up on what's happening outside your window
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  and in your wallet. Right, so weather wise we're
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  looking at a high of 92 degrees Fahrenheit here
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  in Sacramento today. Gonna be a hot one. Definitely.
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  Sunny with some mild winds like 3 to 12 miles
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  per hour. But if you are traveling or have family
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  at a state, definitely check weather .gov. Yeah,
• 1:28
  the national picture is a bit messy right now.
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  Very active. There are 255 total U .S. weather
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  alerts right now and 91 of those are active over
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  land. So be careful out there. Good to know.
• 1:41
  moving on to a quick sports update no games yesterday
• 1:44
  for the giants of the king's unfortunate a breather
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  exactly but the oakland is actually pulled off
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  a tight 3 -2 victory against the Angels. Sam
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  Rice. Yeah, Joel Coonle walked away as the winning
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  pitcher on that one. Meanwhile, looking at the
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  financial markets, they are just soaring. Really
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  strong day yesterday. Yeah, the Dow Jones closed
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  up a robust 301 .86 points and the S &P 500 bumped
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  up 34 .94 points. Which is great for the traditional
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  markets, though, you know, digital assets are
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  taking a slight breather this morning. Bitcoin
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  is hovering around 77 ,278, which is down just
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  a fraction from yesterday's open. Which brings
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  us perfectly to our Morningstar, the tech article
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  report. We are witnessing this massive juxtaposition
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  today. I mean, unprecedented government intervention
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  and hardware crashing right into a massive government
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  retreat in software. Let's look closer at today's
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  tech news. Today's episode is brought to you
• 2:35
  by Strong Coffee, the premium instant coffee
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  that tastes like a traditional brew, but is packed
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  like ashwagandha. Get clean, sustained energy
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  without the jitters. Use promo code SNARFL for
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  20 % off at strongcoffeecompany .com. So our
• 2:52
  first story today is about a literal quantum
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  leap. The US Commerce Department, which is operating
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  under the Shia PS Act, just unleashed a $2 .013
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  billion funding package on the quantum computing
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  industry. $2 billion. Right. This is just a staggering
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  amount of capital flowing into a sector that
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  honestly still feels like science fiction to
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  a lot of people. It really does. And the market
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  reaction to this was instantaneous. We're talking
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  about nine different quantum companies receiving
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  this huge influx of cash to build out our domestic
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  infrastructure. And IBM is the big winner here,
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  right? Oh, absolutely. To understand the scale,
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  I mean, IBM is taking the lion's share. They're
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  receiving a flat $1 billion to establish a brand
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  new quantum foundry. Wait, hold on. Let me stop
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  you there because a quantum foundry sounds like
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  something out of a sci -fi movie. What does a
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  billion dollar quantum foundry actually do? Well,
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  think about how we build normal computer tips
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  today. Right? We print microscopic circuits onto
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  silicon wafers. A quantum foundry takes that
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  manufacturing process to just an entirely different
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  extreme. How so? These new wafers have to be
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  engineered to operate near absolute zero. Which
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  is colder than deep space. Exactly. And they
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  have to do it without any microscopic impurities
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  that could disrupt the quantum states of the
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  chips. So it's incredibly difficult manufacturing.
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  That makes sense why it cost a billion dollars.
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  Yeah. And Wall Street loved it. IBM stock jumped
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  12 % on Thursday just on the news that the government
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  is essentially subsidizing the creation of this
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  ultra specialized manufacturing base and They
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  aren't the only ones building these massive facilities
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  either global foundries is receiving 375 million
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  dollars for secure domestic quantum foundry of
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  their own right Beyond the big founders the government
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  is also handing out a slate of 100 million dollar
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  grants to solve very specific engineering bottlenecks.
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  The recipients of those hundred million dollar
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  grants are basically a who's who of the quantum
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  space. You've got atom computing, D -Wave, inflection,
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  it's a quantum, continuum, and reggae. And the
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  stock market just ate this up. Oh, totally. D
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  -Wave share surged 33%. Wow. And Regetti soared
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  30%. That is wild. There is also a smaller but
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  still highly significant $38 million grant going
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  to a startup called Dirac. And that's to develop
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  something called Silicon Spin quantum computing
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  technologies. Now I have to ask for the uninitiated,
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  what exactly is Silicon Spin? because it got
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  its own carved out grant. So silicon spin is
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  a really fascinating approach instead of building
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  massive complex superconducting loops that require
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  all these exotic materials. Right. Silicon spin
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  basically means they are trapping single electrons
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  in traditional silicon to act as the fundamental
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  units of quantum data. The qubits. Oh I see.
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  It's a huge deal because if they can perfect
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  that we could potentially manufacture quantum
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  chips. using the exact same billion -dollar factories
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  we already use for normal computer chips today.
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  Wow, so it kind of bridges the gap between today's
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  manufacturing and tomorrow's technology. Exactly.
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  Before we get into the policy twist on this funding,
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  we should probably clarify what a quantum computer
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  actually is because, you know, I think people
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  hear the word quantum and their eyes just glaze
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  over. Yeah, it sounds like magic. Right. The
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  best way I've come to understand it is using
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  a library analogy. Okay, let's hear it. So imagine
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  classical computing, like your phone or your
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  laptop, is trying to find a specific piece of
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  information in a massive library. A classical
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  computer has to read every single book in that
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  library one by one until it finds the right answer.
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  Which takes a really long time. Exactly. But
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  a quantum computer doesn't read them one by one.
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  It is basically like having the ability to read
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  every single book in the entire library at the
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  exact same time. Right. Because of how quantum
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  mechanics work, it explores a massive landscape
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  of possibilities simultaneously. Which perfectly
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  explains why the Commerce Department is throwing
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  two billion dollars at this. I mean, they aren't
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  doing this to make our smartphones faster, right?
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  No, not at all. The government specifically highlighted
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  things like national defense, advanced materials,
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  and biopharmaceutical discovery. The country
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  that masters this technology first gains an almost
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  insurmountable strategic advantage. I mean, they
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  could theoretically break traditional military
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  encryption in a matter of minutes. Or simulate
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  complex chemical reactions to discover new drugs
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  without spending years on physical trials. Exactly.
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  But there is a fissive catch in this funding
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  announcement. Right, and this is where it gets
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  controversial. The government isn't just handing
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  out free grant money. The Department of Commerce
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  announced they are taking a minority, non -controlling
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  equity stake in each of these nine companies
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  as a condition for the funds. Which is a monumental
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  shift in how federal industrial policy operates.
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  And I genuinely need to push back on this because
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  it feels like a really wild precedent. It is
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  definitely unusual. Usually taxpayer money goes
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  out as a grant to spur innovation and the public
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  benefit is just, you know, having the technology
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  exist within American borders. Now, the federal
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  government actually owns a piece of private companies
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  like D -Wave and Rigetti. Yeah, they do. What
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  happens if these companies fail? Are taxpayers
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  suddenly absorbing the loss on a bad venture
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  capital investment? Like, does Washington acting
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  like a Silicon Valley VC firm change the game
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  entirely? It alters the dynamic fundamentally,
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  and your concern about the downside is exactly
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  what critics are whispering about right now.
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  But the Commerce Department's stated logic revolves
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  around taxpayer return on investment. Okay, how
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  so? Well, historically the government has funded
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  Early stage research like the early internet
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  or GPS right huge successes Yeah, but private
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  companies captured a hundred percent of the resulting
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  multi trillion dollar commercial upside from
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  those inventions So the government's argument
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  here is that if private companies are going to
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  use taxpayer dollars to build a foundational
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  infrastructure of the next century The taxpayer
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  should literally share in that financial upside
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  on the cap table moving on to our next story
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  And this is what is giving everyone in the tech
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  sector absolute whiplash today. Five minutes
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  ago, we were talking about the government wanting
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  to literally own a piece of the physical hardware
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  of the future. Right. But with the artificial
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  intelligence software that will eventually run
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  on those massive computers, Washington is completely
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  taking its hands off the steering wheel. The
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  contrast could not be starker. President Trump
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  abruptly shelved a landmark artificial intelligence
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  executive order. Just completely scrapped it.
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  Yeah, right before the scheduled signing ceremony,
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  the cancellation was so sudden that some tech
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  executives were literally in the air flying to
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  Washington for the event. When they got the news,
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  it was pulled. Wow. So what was this canceled
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  executive order actually supposed to do? The
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  core mechanism was a voluntary framework. it
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  would have created a 14 to 90 day review window
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  for frontier AI models. And frontier models are,
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  what, the most advanced ones on the market? Exactly,
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  the bleeding edge models. Before they could be
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  released to the public, the idea was to let federal
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  agencies test them to ensure they couldn't be
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  weaponized for massive cyber attacks. And context
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  is everything here, because this policy wasn't
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  drafted in a vacuum. There has been this escalating
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  panic over a new, currently unreleased AI model
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  from Anthropic called right mythos is the big
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  wild card right now because according to briefings
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  mythos demonstrated the ability to autonomously
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  discover severe cyber vulnerabilities and we
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  should explain how that actually works because
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  it's genuinely terrifying older AI models or
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  you know standard security software just scan
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  code looking for known mistakes things human
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  hackers had already done before right but mythos
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  It's different. It actually runs active simulations,
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  it interacts with the operating system, pokes
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  at the digital walls, and autonomously figures
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  out entirely unseen ways to break in. Unseen
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  ways? Yeah, by chaining together minor seemingly
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  harmless bugs into a massive breach. It essentially
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  acts as a tireless automated superhacker. Which
• 10:55
  is exactly why Vice President JD Vance brought
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  this scenario up. He explicitly noted that the
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  administration was worried a bad actor could
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  use an AI like Mythos to target critical cybersecurity
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  flaws. Right. He was emphasizing the need to
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  protect citizens' data and privacy. Yet, despite
• 11:11
  those concerns from the Vice President, President
• 11:13
  Trump pulled the plug on the order. Speaking
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  to reporters, he said, we're leading China and
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  I don't want to do anything that's going to get
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  in the way of that lead. He actually described
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  the executive order as a potential blocker. Yeah,
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  and sources close to the administration were
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  incredibly blunt about it, telling the press
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  that Trump, quote, just hates regulation. It
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  brings the whole philosophical war inside Silicon
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  Valley right to the resolute desk. I mean, you
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  have the accelerationists who argue that the
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  only way to ensure American safety is to build
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  the most powerful AI first, beating China at
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  all costs. I write move fast and win. Exactly.
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  To them. Any regulation is a drag on our national
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  velocity. But on the other side, you have the
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  safety advocates who get dismissively labeled
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  as do -mers by their rivals. Yeah, the do -mers.
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  They argue that moving fast and breaking things
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  is a terrible philosophy when the thing you might
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  break is the global financial system or the national
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  power grid. I am stuck on this 90 -day window
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  detail though, because the tech industry is acting
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  like a three -month pause is the apocalypse.
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  Is it really? I mean, pharmaceutical companies
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  take years to clear the FDA before they can release
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  a drug. That's true. So why is 90 days an AI
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  such a deal -breaker? Or is the industry just
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  being dramatic about a standard consultation
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  period? I mean, it sounds dramatic to the average
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  person, but in the context of the AI arms race,
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  90 days is practically a geological era. Think
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  about the iteration speed. These models are constantly
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  being refined, trained, and deployed. So it's
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  about compounding delays. Exactly. If American
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  companies have to pause their deployment cycle
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  for three months to wait for a federal review,
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  while Chinese labs have zero constraints and
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  are launching new models weekly, that delay adds
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  up fast. You miss one 90 -day cycle, you fall
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  behind an entire generation. And the downstream
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  impact of this debate touches every family and
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  working professional. I mean, federal agencies
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  already deploy advanced AI models to protect
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  banking infrastructure and health care records.
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  We all want our medical data and bank accounts
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  to be secure from something like Mythos. Exactly.
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  But on the flip side, heavy regulation could
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  slow down the tech economy that is currently
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  driving millions of jobs and, frankly, holding
• 13:23
  up a huge portion of American retirement portfolios.
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  Right. And it's a tough balance. Let's explore
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  this because the backstage drama of how this
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  order got killed tells you everything you need
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  to know about how modern policy is actually made.
• 13:37
  Oh, the lobbying blitz was incredible. Yeah,
• 13:39
  this wasn't a spontaneous change of heart. Dive
• 13:42
  into how this actually went down because reports
• 13:44
  indicate that David Sacks, Elon Musk and Mark
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  Zuckerberg all made direct last minute phone
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  calls to the president to derail it. Yeah, the
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  timeline is just wild. The involvement of David
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  Sacks is particularly notable here because Sachs
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  is the former AI czar. Right. And according to
• 14:02
  multiple reports, he had been thoroughly briefed
• 14:05
  on this draft order by top White House officials.
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  We're talking about science advisor Michael Krasios,
• 14:10
  staff secretary Will Scharf, and national cyber
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  director Sean Carencross. Heavy hitters. Very
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  heavy hitters. And after that comprehensive briefing,
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  Sachs reportedly signaled to them that he could
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  live with the draft. Think about that for a second.
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  A landmark national security policy was vetted
• 14:25
  for weeks by the top cyber experts in the country.
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  But then late Wednesday night, Sachs reverses
• 14:31
  course. Holy flips. He starts raising alarms
• 14:34
  that a voluntary system would inevitably become
• 14:37
  a mandatory one under future administrations.
• 14:40
  So. Thursday morning, without telling his own
• 14:43
  staff or the high -ranking officials who had
• 14:46
  just briefed him, he secretly calls the president
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  directly. And convinces him to pull the entire
• 14:51
  policy. It vaporized overnight because a VC changed
• 14:54
  his mind and had the president's personal cell
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  phone number. It's amazing. And it wasn't just
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  the timeline that had the industry talking, it
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  was the actual bureaucracy of the drafted order,
• 15:04
  too. Industry insiders were deeply confused by
• 15:06
  the details. For instance, the Treasury Department
• 15:09
  was inexplicably given a lead role in setting
• 15:12
  up the channel to share these software flaws.
• 15:14
  Which is so weird. Why Treasury? I mean, if we
• 15:16
  are talking about cyber vulnerabilities, you
• 15:18
  would expect standard cyber agencies to handle
• 15:20
  that. Like CISA or NIST. Exactly. Giving it to
• 15:23
  the Treasury Department felt entirely out of
• 15:26
  left field to a lot of cybersecurity professionals.
• 15:28
  It really did. Yeah. But what adds a thick layer
• 15:30
  of irony to this whole saga is that the core
• 15:33
  mechanism of this cancelled order testing models
• 15:36
  for safety is already happening. Wait, really?
• 15:39
  Yeah. Leading AI labs already voluntarily share
• 15:42
  their frontier models with the government's AI
• 15:45
  Safety Center, known as TASI. Wait, if they're
• 15:48
  already handing over the models voluntarily,
• 15:50
  what exactly were they lobbying against? The
• 15:53
  formalization of it. The fight wasn't about the
• 15:55
  concept of testing. It was about putting it in
• 15:57
  writing. The fear from Musk, Zuckerberg, and
• 16:00
  Sachs was the slippery slope. Meaning voluntary
• 16:03
  today becomes mandatory tomorrow. Exactly. Today
• 16:07
  it is a 14 to 90 day window and it's completely
• 16:09
  voluntary. But if you codify that into an executive
• 16:12
  order, tomorrow a new administration can strike
• 16:14
  the word voluntary, change 90 days to 180 days,
• 16:18
  and suddenly you require a government license
• 16:20
  just to release a piece of software. They wanted
• 16:23
  to kill the precedent before it could take root.
• 16:25
  Looking at this from an outsider's perspective,
• 16:27
  the whiplash for investors in the market has
• 16:29
  to be absolutely brutal. Markets hate uncertainty
• 16:32
  more than anything else. Oh, they despise it.
• 16:34
  You have a policy that winds its way through
• 16:36
  the national security apparatus four weeks. Invitations
• 16:39
  for the signing ceremony go out. And then a couple
• 16:42
  of tech CEOs bypass the entire formal process
• 16:45
  with a phone call. And the policy vanishes into
• 16:48
  thin air. I mean, how on earth do investors or
• 16:51
  enterprise businesses plan their roadmaps for
• 16:54
  the future of tech regulation when national policy
• 16:57
  is dictated by last -minute calls outside the
• 17:00
  formal process? It creates a highly volatile
• 17:02
  environment. And honestly, the tech industry
• 17:04
  itself is fractured on this issue. You have massive
• 17:07
  companies practically begging for clear, predictable
• 17:10
  federal guidelines so they know what the rules
• 17:12
  of the game are. But right now, the Zero Interference
• 17:15
  Camp just proved they have the ultimate trump
• 17:17
  card. Direct access to the Oval Office. Exactly.
• 17:20
  Before we wrap up, a quick thanks to Old Glory,
• 17:22
  an iconic music and sports fan merch store. Perfect
• 17:25
  for the techie in your life. Use promo code SNARFL
• 17:28
  for 15 % off at oldglory .com. Synthesizing what
• 17:32
  we've covered today, I mean, it really reveals
• 17:35
  two completely divergent philosophies of government
• 17:37
  operating at the exact same time. It really does.
• 17:39
  On one hand, with quantum computing, the U .S.
• 17:42
  government is acting like a sovereign wealth
• 17:44
  fund. They are pouring over two billion dollars
• 17:47
  into hardware and taking direct equity stakes
• 17:50
  to ensure America literally owns the physical
• 17:52
  infrastructure of the future. But on the other
• 17:55
  hand, with artificial intelligence software,
• 17:57
  the government is taking its hands completely
• 17:59
  off the wheel. They are banking entirely on the
• 18:02
  premise that raw speed will save us, and that
• 18:05
  any regulatory friction, even for an AI model
• 18:08
  that can autonomously hack complex systems, is
• 18:12
  an unacceptable threat to our geopolitical lead.
• 18:15
  Right. The physical metal is treated as a vital
• 18:17
  national asset to be protected and co -owned
• 18:20
  by the taxpayer. But the incredibly powerful
• 18:22
  software running on that metal is being left
• 18:24
  entirely to the Wild West of the free market.
• 18:27
  Which leaves us with a final lingering thought
• 18:29
  for you to ponder today. As AI models become
• 18:32
  capable of finding their own critical cyber vulnerabilities,
• 18:35
  and the government relies on tech billionaires
• 18:37
  to dictate the speed of release, who is ultimately
• 18:40
  responsible for the safety of our digital infrastructure?
• 18:43
  Is it Washington, or is it Silicon Valley? A
• 18:46
  vital question to ask ourselves. We're here to
• 18:48
  help that snarfle, so reach out on our website
• 18:51
  if you have any more questions. That's a wrap
• 18:56
  on today's top stories. Remember, tech doesn't
• 18:59
  have to be complicated, and we're here to help
• 19:01
  connect the dots. If you've got questions or
• 19:04
  want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
• 19:08
  Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next
• 19:10
  time.