ALFA Field Notes

Freedom Compute Clusters

We haven’t heard much yet from President Trump’s 2023 proposal to build ten new “Freedom Cities”. But we hope we might soon — perhaps with a twist. The President’s campaign proposal is intended to alleviate bureaucratic burdens that have slowed us from advancing American life into a durable modern age. One of the largest burdens on the horizon is meeting our energy demand to power our AI opportunity.

So, here at ALFA we have been kicking the tires on a different kind of Freedom City: Freedom Compute Clusters. To secure our technological future, Secretary Burgum could leverage Interior's vast land portfolio to identify and fast-track sites for AI infrastructure — from data centers to the energy needed to power them. On these sites, AI and energy companies would be given extraordinarily (and by extraordinary we mean weeks, not months or years) fast approval for their projects — “if you can, then build”. In addition to solving our AI infrastructure constraints, these freedom compute clusters would serve as a proving ground for advanced energy development — from new nuclear to geothermal — that could later be deployed to more populous regions to improve our electricity resilience.

The market is signaling it is ready to deploy the capital needed for these types of investments. Now, the government needs to look west and let it run free.

Asteroid Mining

The asteroid news that got attention this week was NASA’s assessment that increased the likelihood of an asteroid impacting the earth. But that’s not the asteroid focus we have today. (Though, we should absolutely figure out how to stop that from happening.) In the more immediate future, a Natural Resources Subcommittee will hold a hearing “Contrasting Momentum in the Space Mining Economy to the Terrestrial Mining Regulatory Morass.”

Ten years ago, Congress passed the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act (SPACE Act), which extended resource rights to space. Today, mining and manufacturing in space is accelerating.

The advantages are transformative:

• Direct access to trillion-dollar markets in precious metals and rare earth elements

• Strategic independence from foreign mineral supply chains, without terrestrial environmental tradeoffs for the air and land we love

• Power generation potential through resources like Helium-3

• Foundation for permanent American presence in space

The space mining economy represents more than new markets – it's a chance to extend American industrial might. The first nation to establish viable space mining operations will set precedents for generations. This is how America wins.

Don’t Work Here

You may have already seen it. Even if you have, it’s worth a watch again. Anduril has a new ad campaign titled, “Don’t work at Anduril”. It’s clever, interesting, and promotes American manufacturing work. Instead of nearly every other current ad breathlessly listing what the company does, here is Anduril giving the same information, but by telling you what it doesn’t do — from a new employee perspective.

Thanks for reading and see you next week.

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