Strategic AI Systems Competition

Deployment. Capital. Infrastructure. Alliances.

• Artificial intelligence is no longer a software race.
• It is a systems race.
• The decisive question of this decade is not who builds the most advanced model — but who can finance, power, regulate, and deploy trusted AI systems at national and aligned international scale.
• Mark R. Kennedy writes and speaks at the intersection of AI deployment, capital markets, energy infrastructure, sovereign strategy, and alliance coordination.
• He serves as Director of the Development Research Institute at NYU and leads the Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition, convening senior leaders across government, finance, technology, and energy to address AI stack deployment in a fragmented world.
• His work focuses on one central challenge:
• Can open-market systems deploy at scale — and sustain strategic advantage — in the age of AI?

CORE AREAS

AI Strategy

• The AI Stack — compute, capital, energy, governance, and deployment architecture.
• Industrial policy, export controls, and allied scaling of trusted AI ecosystems.
• 👉 Explore AI Strategy →

Strategic Competition

• System-level competition between governance and technology models.
• Technology fragmentation, capital flows, and alliance alignment in a two-bloc world.
• 👉 Explore Strategic Competition →

Capital & Infrastructure

• Energy systems, infrastructure finance, sovereign capital, and the industrial foundations of AI scale.
• 👉 Explore Capital & Infrastructure →

Security & Alliances

• Security resilience, defense modernization, and alliance coordination in the era of AI-driven geopolitical change.
• 👉 Explore Security & Alliances →

RECENT WORK

• Goldman Sachs Podcast: Future of US–China Technology Competition
• Ten Steps to Win the AI Race
• America’s AI Strategy: Playing Defense While China Plays to Win
• From Diagnosis to Deployment: Why EXIM’s Project Vault Matters
• Made in Democracy — Why Industrial Power Decides Strategic Competition

• Recent engagements include global forums in Paris, Geneva, Doha, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.
• 👉 Explore NewsNation TV Commentary →
• 👉 Explore Media & Publications →

SPEAKING

• Mark Kennedy delivers executive-level briefings to corporate boards, financial institutions, infrastructure investors, global forums, and policymakers.
• His flagship address:
• The AI Stack: Who Will Deploy the Future — and Who Will Stall
• 👉 Learn More About Speaking →

ABOUT

• Former Fortune 100 executive.
• Former U.S. Congressman.
• Former president of two flagship public research universities.
• Now focused on strategic AI systems competition and institutional performance in the age of industrial-scale technology.
• 👉 Full Biography →

AVAILABILITY

• Based in Washington, DC
• Engaging globally
• Select advisory and speaking engagements annually
• Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.