Principles Of National Security Investing

National security investing is attracting capital, yetit remains poorly defined as an investment category. Global venture investment in defense technology rose 75 percent from 2024 to 2025, while private funds increasingly extend the national security label to artificial intelligence, critical minerals, energy, advanced manufacturing and supply-chain resilience. Some investments in these fields definitively strengthen national security. Others primarily pursue attractive markets, domestic jobs, technological leadership or economic growth and produce, at most, an incidental security benefit. As more funds and companies characterize broad portions of their activity as national security investing, the term risks becoming a marketing device rather than a meaningful investment category.