Brett McGurk has served in national security roles for the last four presidents, negotiating ceasefires in Gaza, leading a global coalition to fight ISIS, and fighting for warmer relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
But these days, he’s more likely to be shepherding venture capitalists and CEOs through the Middle East, striking multibillion-dollar AI deals with the region’s authoritarian leaders.
After more than 20 years in government — most recently as President Joe Biden’s national security council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa — McGurk has traded in the swamp for more profitable pastures, becoming a venture partner at Lux Capital, which invests heavily in AI and defense tech, and Cisco Systems’ special adviser for the Middle East and international affairs.
There has long been a revolving door between Capitol Hill and defense contractors. But only in the last few years have officials joined VC investment firms, with McGurk following in the heels of Mark Esper, the former defense secretary, and Raj Shah, former head of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.
McGurk quickly put his contacts to use for his new employers: In February, he escorted Lux Capital partner Josh Wolfe to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where they discussed AI with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In May, McGurk returned to the Middle East with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. Cisco gave him props for being “instrumental” in the company joining Stargate, the $500 billion AI infrastructure project, and for serving as a founding partner in Saudi Arabia’s new AI firm Humain.
We spoke with McGurk last week about his new career path, the ethics of embracing the Gulf, and what kind of AI he wants to see in the Situation Room.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Why leave the government for the private sector?
Over the last 20 years, I’ve been in the very highest levels of the most complex life-and-death, war-and-peace environments. I really wanted to do something different. And I think we are at the beginning of another chapter: the advanced AI revolution.
‘At some point, in the Situation Room, you will have an AI agent assessing everything going on.’
I was in the Situation Room on Oct. 1 when 200 ballistic missiles were flying through the air from Iran toward Israel. There’s like five or six minutes of pure silence, because the defenses are not ready to engage, and you’re at the whim of not only our preparations but our technology. I recall thinking about all the work that went into this moment, from sensitive satellite communications to sensors to interceptors traveling at Mach 5 to take out a ballistic missile. I want to be a part of this era — hopefully to deter any future moments as weapons get better with AI — but also to make sure the United States and our partners are dominant in this space.
Describe the trips you took this year with Josh Wolfe and Chuck Robbins to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
We did some meetings in Abu Dhabi, because, in terms of their AI adoption, the UAE is just so advanced. I really wanted Josh to meet Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan [the deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi] and other folks I’ve worked with in so many capacities over almost two decades.
We also went to Saudi Arabia. Chuck met with bin Salman and the leadership in UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar. Those countries see where the future is going. They’re all in on AI and are prepared to invest massively. They will not sit on their hands. I believe it is very much in our interests as a country to ensure that those countries are working within our tech ecosystem. I don’t know how you win the AI race without partners who have massive capital, ready access to energy, and want to invest heavily within our ecosystem and reinvest dollar for dollar back in our domestic build-out.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE want access to U.S. AI technology, but they often work with Chinese firms. What do you think about making them such pivotal players in the AI race when they are also working with a U.S. adversary?
When it comes to U.S.-China competition, very few issues are zero-sum. But the defense sector is. If a country wants to buy a Chinese air defense system, you’re not going to be eligible for a lot of stuff that we sell. That’s well understood.
Advanced tech is another one. The UAE moved so fast that it came to the point where they did have to make a choice in order to have access to a lot of our most advanced technology. [After Biden imposed restrictions on exporting technology to the UAE, the UAE-backed AI firm G42 removed its Chinese hardware and divested from Chinese partners.]
I worked with former Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and former U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan so that our technology was deployed in a way where we have assurances that our technology is going to be protected. Certain investments in the Chinese tech ecosystem are simply incompatible with that goal.
Two weeks ago, a memo leaked from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei saying he would seek Gulf investment. “‘No bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,” he wrote. What is your thought process on partnering with countries not aligned with the U.S. on human rights issues?
I look at the overall trend of direction of where countries are going and ask: Do countries advance in a direction we would prefer if they are an American security partner or not? I’ve worked for four presidents, and previously, the No. 1 issue on the agenda with Saudi senior officials was the spread of extremism. I have to say, Saudi Arabia has completely taken on that issue and turned it around massively. That trend is done with American partnership.
Nowadays, when you’re in a conversation with Saudis at the highest level, terrorism is not even in the top five issues because of the progress that’s been made. For those who say you can just unplug and some things will get better — or that it’s not in our interests — that constantly comes back to bite us in a massive way.
What do you wish founders and investors understood about how D.C. works?
That people in the government work extremely hard, seven days a week. I have never seen more dedicated people devoting their entire lives to a mission.
Also, in my previous job, we worked in compartmented facilities in which you can’t use a lot of [tech] tools. In a secure facility, you don’t have your phone, so we were not using OpenAI or large language models on a daily basis. I think that really has to change. In the next few years, I think a big conversation will be, in a national security decision — even a war-and-peace decision — how do you use an AI model to help inform decision-making? At some point, in the Situation Room, you will have an AI agent assessing everything going on.
It’s got to be a much calmer life working in the private sector. Do you think you’ll ever go back into government?
Probably not [laughs].