Dave Marra spent more than a decade inside Big Tech, but what he saw there convinced him America was heading in the wrong direction.
"I watched the woke-mind virus be conceived, gestated, born and turned into an unruly teenager. And it was almost the demise of our society," he told Fox News Digital.
Now, as CEO of Rivet Industries – the defense technology company that just secured a $195 million contract with the U.S. Army – Marra says he’s determined to redirect innovation away from Silicon Valley’s cultural obsessions and back toward the people who "build and defend our country."
From blue-collar workers who keep the lights on to soldiers on the battlefield, Marra argues America’s survival depends on equipping them with cutting-edge tools, especially as the U.S. faces an AI arms race against China.
FORMER ARMY OFFICER DEVELOPS OFFLINE A.I. FOR MILITARY USES AS PENTAGON FUNDS TECH GIANTS
"It's a dereliction of duty that my 12-year-old on her iPad can use generative AI to pursue her interests… She can pursue her interest in art and athletics, etc., but the guy in the bucket truck can't," Marra said.
"Not only because the companies who are building these products don't understand that these people are operating in very austere environments, so the underpinning of the device needs to be able to operate with them in that environment, [but] because the business rewards weren't there. And that's the paradigm that we're looking to shift."
"This group of people, and that is the people who are building, operating and ultimately defending our critical infrastructure, are the people that actually make the world turn," he continued.
Rivet’s new Soldier Borne Mission Command, built specifically for the Army, aims to break the mold in traditional defense contracting. The technology fuses data from soldiers, sensors and mission systems to create "one clear operational picture," and is designed to operate in low-light, heavy-dust, degraded-communication environments.
"Soldier Borne Mission Command is an ambition by the U.S. Department of War to equip every single soldier with situational awareness, that give[s] them omnipotent omniscience on the battlefield," the CEO explained.
"We deployed a significant amount of our own capital in building the thing for the warfighter before we even saw a requirements document… and before we ultimately executed this contract," Marra expanded. "The fundamental difference… is we executed toward Army-stated objectives and priorities before we got paid."
From drone swarms to gene-edited soldiers, the United States and China are racing to integrate artificial intelligence into nearly every facet of their war machines. Under Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the Army has launched a $36 billion modernization initiative aimed directly at countering China in the Indo-Pacific.
By 2026, each of its 10 active combat divisions will be equipped with roughly 1,000 drones, dramatically shifting the battlefield from crewed helicopters to autonomous systems, Fox News has previously reported.
Rivet’s CEO expressed confidence in its technological capabilities further defending against "deep tech," global competition and urgent national security risks.
"The adversary that we have to be ultimately prepared for – the technology companies [that] are state-sponsored, the sovereign currency [that] is manipulated, the priorities [that] are not set by free market capitalism as we love and enjoy it and have for the last several hundred years. If technology companies don't work in concert with the Department of War… we will not have a chance," he said.
"AI is an accelerant to the most important asset that we have, and that's the people."
Connecting its defense mission to civilians’ everyday experiences, Marra spotlights emerging technology as the invisible infrastructure supporting daily American life.
"When we think about everyday Americans… the privilege is that our lights come on, clean water comes out of the faucet, and planes land safely," he noted.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
"The people who are most important are the ones that are making sure the electrons come out of the outlet, that the clean water comes out of the faucet, that the plane, the train, the boat and the factory are online," Marra added. "So where we see Rivet's tech over the next three to five years is exactly in all of those places… that ensures that the rising tide lifts all boats for all Americans, all people and residents of the Western world."
Marra offered a final rallying cry for America’s current cultural and technological crossroads: "We need to hire and elect on meritocratic values and meritocratic bases, and go execute to keep America number one."
Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
