In this Investor Insight session, we featured Dan Kunze, a private investor and former GeoInvesting intern who has spent the last 15 years working across defense, data, AI, and energy sectors. He discussed his career trajectory, from joining the U.S. Army while in law school to leading strategic growth at LeoLabs, a space-tracking company monitoring satellites in low Earth orbit. Kunze now hosts Warrior Money on Yahoo Finance and has overseen over $1 billion in revenue and $25 billion in cost savings through large-scale modernization programs. His work and investments center on “dual-use” technologies, innovations with both commercial and defense applications, and the modernization of physical infrastructure supporting the emerging AI economy. Dan recently launched a Substack to share what he has learned over the years.
Kunze outlined how U.S. defense priorities have shifted from counterterrorism toward “near-peer” conflict readiness, especially regarding China and the Indo-Pacific. He expects global defense spending, projected at $2.7 trillion in 2024, to rise past $1 trillion in the U.S. budget by 2026. From an investor’s lens, he sees strong tailwinds for the AI infrastructure layer (energy, water, and data-center systems enabling AI scalability) rather than speculative software or agent-based models. He compared this to the early industrial period rather than the dot-com bubble, arguing that physical and industrial underpinnings for AI remain in early growth.
We also discussed how commercialization is now integral to defense innovation, with new government initiatives funding private-sector scale-ups across AI, energy, and space. Kunze described how programs like the Office of Strategic Capital, In-Q-Tel, and NATO’s Diane Fund help companies cross the traditional “Valley of Death” between prototype and full-scale adoption. He cited examples such as ESP and Tech Precision Corp (TPC) as potential beneficiaries of submarine and shipbuilding modernization, and CYSNF as a possible play in satellite components.
On the space front, Kunze emphasized the opportunities in satellite component manufacturing rather than in the high-risk satellite builders themselves. He expects launch activity by SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and Amazon’s Kuiper to accelerate through 2030, driving demand for universal components that can be used across multiple systems. He also highlighted logistics and sustainment technologies, “digital depots” and AI-driven predictive maintenance, as unglamorous but essential growth areas supporting supply chain efficiency and recurring revenue.
To close, Kunze stressed key risks: the danger of technologies becoming obsolete before adoption, and companies misaligning capital deployment with go-to-market execution. Success, he said, depends on disciplined capital allocation, scalable partnerships, and understanding the long defense procurement cycle, as patience and enterprise-grade execution are critical in translating innovation into enduring revenue streams.
