Research, briefings, and field notes on federal capital movement, defense procurement, and what the data actually says. From the HighGround team.
The FY27 defense research budget shows 140% growth. Most of it is $124.9B in reconciliation money Congress has not appropriated, across 35 program elements.
Defense Production Act purchases ran about a billion dollars a year. The FY2027 request is $30.4 billion. Nobody knows who gets it yet, and that is not a research failure.
HighGround announced $6.5 million in seed funding, led by Next Frontier Capital with participation from Tandem Ventures, Fulcrum Capital, and Context Ventures, to bring institutional-grade intelligence to the defense and aerospace investment market.
A $350B defense increase is riding on a reconciliation bill unlikely to pass as written. The exposure is concentrated: a handful of programs and two primes carry most of the mandatory dollars. A reading of what is at risk in the FY27 request for defense capital allocators.
The HASC approved its FY27 NDAA after working through ~900 amendments. Three stand out for defense allocators: covered AI exclusions, commercial data procurement, and mature-node chip supply.
The HASC Chairman's Mark of the FY27 NDAA introduces three quiet reforms that compress incumbent moats in OTA transitions, sustainment IP, and capital screening.
No cadence. No fluff. Original analysis on government demand, defense procurement, and federal capital movement, sent when we have something worth reading.
For PE, VC, sell-side, BD, capture, and strategy teams covering defense.
