🌍 Startups want the US military to modernise

Hi there Intriguer. The world’s best restaurant is in… Peru! And what it lacks in cheeseburgers, it makes up for with razor clams and Andean kiwicha (an ancient grain). Looking for something closer to home? The top-ranking US spot serves “distinctive Korean food”, but there could be some waiting involved: it has 14 seats.

Today’s briefing is a 4 min read:

• 🇺🇸 Startups want to disrupt the US defence sector.

• 🇬🇾 Guyana rejects OPEC’s advances.

• ➕ Plus: We boarded a US warship, how the papers are covering elections in Sierra Leone, and what do Russians think of Prigozhin’s rebellion?

1. 🇰🇷 South Korea: A new system to calculate age went into effect yesterday (Wednesday), making South Koreans a year or two younger. The new system aligns with international standards and scraps the two other methods South Koreans had been using.

2. 🇳🇴 Norway: Energy minister Terje Aasland has approved 19 new oil and gas projects on the Norwegian continental shelf worth around $19B. Norway’s energy revenues have skyrocketed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed Europeans to find new sources.

3. 🇹🇭 Thailand: A court has acquitted five people accused of blocking the Thai queen’s motorcade during pro-democracy demonstrations in 2020. The charges of attempting to “harm the liberty of the queen” could have carried a 16-year prison sentence or the death penalty.

4. 🇨🇷 Costa Rica: The IMF approved a $519M loan to Costa Rica earlier this week to bolster growth and environmental management. The IMF expects Costa Rica’s economy to grow by at least 3% in 2023 and 2024.

5. 🇦🇴 Angola: African leaders have met in Angola’s capital, Luanda, to discuss strategies to stabilise the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Leaders warned that violence between rebels and the government in sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country could spread across the continent.

🇺🇸 US | Defence & tech

Startups want a piece of US defence spending

12 venture capital and defence tech firms have written an open letter to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urging the US to open its military procurement procedures to smaller Silicon Valley defence ventures.

The collective says its aim is to transform an “antiquated” system into one that allows the US to retain its lead on the “technological battlefield”.

VC investment in the defence sector was already surging in recent years, but the Russo-Ukraine War hit the accelerator as startups worked with Ukraine to showcase their latest tech on the battlefield. For example:

• Fortem has a drone that can shoot a net to disable enemy drones

• BRINC has sent dozens of reconnaissance drones to Ukraine, and

• HawkEye360 uses satellite clusters to detect Russian GPS jamming.

And many of these startups have top VC backing; early Facebook investor Andreessen Horowitz even launched a new fund with a defence focus.

Intrigue's take: What a journey: Silicon Valley has partnered with US intelligence, then boycotted Pentagon projects, and declined to unlock a terrorist’s phone, before now telling the Pentagon it wants to be friends again.

This tricky relationship probably reflects the values at play here: sometimes there’s been tension between defending the US, and defending US civil liberties. But the way the world is going, many tech sector folks are now seeing more alignment between those two objectives.

And in the meantime, the trenches in Ukraine serve as a reminder of how much warfighting tech still hasn’t changed.

Also worth noting:

• US investment in defence startups totalled $14.5B in the first quarter of 2023, compared to $8.3B raised by fintech startups.

• Skydio, a startup producing drones in California, is backed by investors including Lockheed Martin, Andreessen Horowitz, Magic Johnson (not a typo), and Justin Timberlake (seriously).

• US Defense Secretary Austin gave a speech in California in December, outlining some earlier responses to industry feedback.

📰 How newspapers covered…

Elections in Sierra Leone

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🇬🇾 Guyana | Geo-economics

The world’s fastest-growing oil producer is going it alone

Guyana’s vice president said this week that his country doesn’t want to join the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

While Guyana hasn’t yet received an official invitation to join the oil sector cartel, OPEC has been putting the idea out there. And you can see why:

• 💵 Guyana is backed by a $40B oil consortium (led by Exxon Mobil)

• 🛢️ It’s gone from pumping zero to 336,000 barrels a day since 2019, and

• 📈 It’s looking to pump more than a million barrels per day by 2028.

Intrigue’s take: OPEC was once the place for oil producers – more exclusive than a Berlin nightclub devoted to minimalist German techno.

But non-OPEC producers like Brazil and the US are now projected to outpace OPEC by millions of barrels a day in coming years. And with the green transition underway, Guyana wants to get “as much oil out of the ground as quickly as possible”, without OPEC rules tapping its brakes.

Also worth noting:

• Guyana (pop: ~791,000) is the only English-speaking country in South America.

• The IMF expects Guyana’s GDP to grow by 37.2% (!) this year.

➕ Extra Intrigue

What we’re reading about the Russia thingy (we can’t stop!)

• Russian General arrested following Wagner mutiny

• Energy markets barely blinked at Russia’s mutiny

• Prigozhin planned to capture top military brass

• What do Russians think of Prigozhin’s rebellion?

• It’s all starting to make sense…

🗳️ Poll time!

📸 Photo of the day

Our Managing Editor Jeremy boarded the USS America in Australia last week! US warships often make port calls Down Under: sailors get to come ashore, local towns enjoy an influx of visitors, and Washington gets to show off its military might with a trusted ally. Our buddy Ben made this video of the visit.

Yesterday’s poll: If you had to attend, which Davos would you prefer?

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏔️ The OG Davos (34%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☀️ Summer Davos (5%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ☠️ You'd have to drag me kicking and screaming (62%)

Your two cents:

• ☠️ M.G: “Having attended multiple similar gatherings, I feel I've paid my dues!”

• ☀️ V.R: “I visited Tianjin in 2019 while living in Beijing. Fun city—easy to bike around and the foreign concessions area is interesting to see with that architecture in China.”