Senior Editor @Forbes. Formerly Storyful Asia Editor Send tips via Signal: iainmartin.11
London, England
Joined June 2009
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Bhutan has confirmed it has quietly been running a bitcoin mining operation after @SarahNEmerson and I began digging into its secret investments in cryptocurrency earlier this month.
Here's what we have learned 🧵
forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/…
Iain Martin retweeted
On my podcast 2 weeks ago, Colossal's @BenLamm hinted at this new startup announced tonight with @PalmerLuckey. He didn't mention it was to genetically engineer military and law dogs (?!?)
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"We've not announced a couple other companies. You know, one of our AI companies that we spun out is already valued over $2B in less than 10 months.
We have another startup that we're working on that I think will be a unicorn out of the gate, which I know sounds crazy, but it is-- the project's crazy in itself."
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I'd say that mission fits the bill. But spinouts from @colossal's tech are a big part of its business strategy.
From 35:55 in the @UpstartsMediaCo interview:
youtu.be/fOEIgiTZqxw?si=DqmK…
Warhound, the brain child of Ben Lamm and Palmer Luckey, emerges from stealth to genetically engineer dogs for military and law enforcement.
spr.ly/6011BHZNMF
Military spend is likely double
forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/…
Iain Martin retweeted
“when Kushner used the phone, they could see his screen. Almost as soon as they got inside, the [Dutch] intelligence service began capturing every image of Kushner’s screen as he used it, filing their own cache of surveillance on their internal computer servers.” vanityfair.com/story/jared-k…
The Russians hacked Jared's phone. Then Dutch cyberspies reverse-engineered that hack, giving them unprecedented access to his world. Bananas story here in @VanityFair
Iain Martin retweeted
There are reports this morning that @SpaceX’s Starshield has been restored for Ukrainian use. That is not the case.
As one staff officer from a key, large unit, told me just now:
“We fly over 180 (km/h), fly for a few minutes, lose connection, drop to 140-150, lose connection, speed up again but the connection is still crashing.”
"Young Britons are being squeezed out of high-paying industries such as tech and finance" bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Bleak
“I hope they understand what it is that they are doing, or they’re just going to be spinning their tails.”
The billionaires trying to clone a new generation of genetically engineered dogs to help break the U.S. military's reliance on European imports
forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/…
A long read on how the Pentagon is hooked on Belgian Malinois and other expensive European imports from @rtiron back in 2020
about.bgov.com/insights/news…
Iain Martin retweeted
New on Elizabeth Holmes' partner Billy Evans’ blood testing startup: its former CTO and a key inventor on its patents, has left. Somebody who spoke with Billy says he refers to the company as “Theranos 2.0”, a label the company has rejected. forbes.com/sites/annatong/20…
Iain Martin retweeted
Scoop with @amyfeldman and @_IainMartin - The billionaire trying to resurrect woolly mammoths is now developing bio-enhanced military dogs.
Ben Lamm's new startup Warhound raised $200m at a $1.2b valuation and is teaming up with Palmer Luckey's Anduril:
forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/…
Colossal Biosciences’ founder has started a new venture to create new bio-enhanced military dogs in collaboration with Anduril’s Palmer Luckey forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/…
Iain Martin retweeted
As the White House and Elon Musk point fingers at one another over who restricted Starshield to Ukraine, here are some of the real life repercussions for troops on the front lines.
From @siobhan_ogrady, @carlottagall and @antontroian
nytimes.com/2026/10/21/world…
Iain Martin retweeted
Scoop: a16z's flagship blockchain fund plans to drop "crypto" from its name and rebrand as a16z frontier.
a16z crypto was one of the first and largest mainstream blockchain funds, raising a monster $4.5 billion vehicle in 2022, and more recently a $2.2 billion fund earlier this year.
Andreessen Horowitz also became one of the most vocal—and deep-pocketed—defenders of crypto in Washington, D.C.
Longtime general partner Ali Yahya is also leaving the fund.
a16z crypto has already been investing in non-blockchain startups like Kalshi and the AI compute market startup Ornn, and this move to expand beyond crypto echoes recent strategies by other top blockchain firms including Paradigm and Haun Ventures.
Still, general partner Chris Dixon has long been a public face for the Web3 movement, and the decision represents a symbolic shift for one of the most prominent crypto venture operations.
Full story here: theinformation.com/articles/…
One of Europe’s top media moguls has sought to hive off and acquire a stake in TikTok’s European operations, pitching the politically charged plan to a well-connected member of the Trump administration ft.com/content/171220b9-8d8e…
Iain Martin retweeted
According to Politico, Serbia’s state-owned telecom firm has the single largest lobbying contract in Washington, DC. Telekom Srbija is a chief influence vehicle of the Vucic regime in the Balkans and has deep, robust commercial ties with China’s Huawei.
Competition to back the startup AI startup Emulate, is so intense that investors are willing to buy into the same round at spiralling prices. Index invested at a $200m pricetag. Creandum bought into the same funding round at about a $3b valuation
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
For more on life in the tranches
forbes.com/sites/rashishriva…
