PODCAST · 06 NOVEMBER 2026

Defense Tech’s New Contract With Washington (Podcast)

Goodwin Procter LLP

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The Trump administration is dramatically reshaping defense contracting by streamlining regulations and introducing government equity investments to attract tech startups. These changes aim to bridge the "valley of death" between innovation and deployment, but raise questions about foreign ownership scrutiny and the permanence of these reforms beyond the current administration.

United StatesGovernment, Public Sector

SHOW NOTES AND RELATED CONTENT

TRANSCRIPT

The following transcript of this discussion was edited for clarity.

Bob Mertz: Hi everyone, I’m Bob Mertz, and this is “Forces of Law,” Goodwin’s new podcast on the big forces shaping business. Today, we’re talking about a big change underway in the defense industry. Whether or not you work in this space, what’s happening here is really interesting. The Trump administration has been trying to get more tech startups to work with the Defense Department (Pentagon), and to do that, it’s been pretty dramatically overhauling how contracts get awarded and how the government invests in those businesses.

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