This session featured Richard Burr, a former US senator (2005–2023) and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, now advising corporates at DLA Piper. It was moderated by DLA Piper partner Jeff Baglio. Burr brings a rare vantage point spanning national security, healthcare policy and corporate advisory, with a focus on how geopolitical and regulatory dynamics shape innovation and capital flows. 

The following points summarise the key themes for corporate venture investors that emerged from his remarks.

  • Corporate venture as a strategic intelligence function 
    • Corporate venture capital (CVC) units should be seen internally as “intelligence operations” for their parent companies, providing forward-looking insight into technologies and markets. 
    • Boards and CEOs underutilise this function; Burr urged more structured engagement between venture teams and senior leadership. 
    • For investors, this reinforces the case for positioning CVC not merely as financial or strategic optionality, but as a core input into corporate decision-making. 
  • Policy uncertainty as both constraint and opportunity
    • The current US policy environment is best characterised as “managed uncertainty”, with political gridlock slowing regulatory clarity. 
    • However, Burr argued that “in all chaos, there is opportunity”, with innovation continuing across sectors regardless of policy lag. 
    • For CVCs, the implication is to focus less on macro noise and more on identifying durable technological signals. 
  • Regulation shapes capital flows — with material consequences 
    • Regulatory timing can significantly redirect global capital: Europe’s early AI regulation was cited as having deterred investment, benefiting the US. 
    • Policymakers often lack the foresight to regulate emerging technologies effectively, as illustrated by the long evolution of internet policy. 
    • CVC investors should actively engage in policy discussions to avoid adverse regulatory outcomes and ensure capital formation is not impaired. 
  • Dual-use technologies and rising security considerations 
    • Most frontier technologies (AI, biotech, quantum) have both commercial upside and security risks, particularly around attribution and misuse. 
    • Warfare is increasingly technology-led, with AI-enabled systems acting as force multipliers, as seen in Ukraine. 
    • This is likely to drive increased investment into defence technologies, particularly in Europe, alongside new financing structures such as a proposed Defence Security Resilience Bank. 
    • For CVCs, defence tech and dual-use innovation represent a growing and politically supported investment theme. 
  • Supply chain realignment and geopolitical fragmentation
    • Global supply chains are being structurally redesigned towards the West, with bipartisan US support for reducing dependence on China. 
    • This shift is driven by lessons from the pandemic and broader geopolitical competition. 
    • Investors should assess portfolio exposure to supply chain realignment and prioritise companies aligned with emerging geopolitical blocs. 
  • AI as a systemic multiplier — and a challenge to existing models 
    • AI is expected to act as a “10x or 100x multiplier” on economic activity, though its precise impact remains uncertain. 
    • It may undermine traditional intellectual property frameworks by enabling alternative solutions that bypass protected inventions. 
    • This introduces uncertainty into ROI calculations and challenges conventional venture assumptions about defensibility. 
    • CVCs will need more flexible investment theses and valuation frameworks to account for accelerated technological obsolescence. 
  • The growing importance of policy engagement 
    • Policymaking bodies often lack deep technical understanding, creating risk of poorly designed regulation. 
    • Burr advocated for companies to act as “educational partners” to regulators, shaping policy proactively rather than reacting to it. 
    • For corporate investors, structured government engagement is becoming a strategic necessity, not a peripheral activity. 
  • Capital scarcity amid accelerating innovation 
    • A key structural risk is that there is “not enough capital to fuel all the innovation” currently underway. 
    • Governments are unlikely to sustain current levels of financial support, increasing reliance on private capital. 
    • This places CVCs at the centre of funding critical technologies, with heightened responsibility for capital allocation decisions. 

Implications for corporate venture investors 

  • Elevate CVC as a strategic intelligence capability within the corporation. 
  • Prioritise sectors shaped by geopolitical competition: defence, AI, supply chain infrastructure. 
  • Build internal capabilities to interpret policy and regulatory shifts alongside market signals. 
  • Engage proactively with policymakers to shape favourable regulatory environments. 
  • Adapt investment frameworks to account for faster innovation cycles and weaker IP defensibility.
  • Prepare for a more capital-constrained environment, with greater selectivity and impact expectations. 

Overall, the session framed corporate venture investors not merely as financiers, but as critical intermediaries between innovation, policy and corporate strategy in an increasingly fragmented and fast-moving global system. 

This summary was generated by AI and lightly edited by GCV staff.