Friday, August 15, 2025

This cybersecurity company’s AI hacker can locate files on Nimitz-class aircraft carriers ‘in less than five minutes’

In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to Snehal Antani, CEO of cybersecurity company Horizon3.ai.
The big story: Trump meets Putin.
The markets: Mostly flat.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. As President Trump prepares to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin today, I find myself wondering about the state of cyber-enabled warfare, economic and otherwise. Business leaders know well the escalating capacity of state and non-state actors to target weak points for maximum disruption in a cyberattack. The defense industry has increasingly served as a template for identifying threats and protecting assets in the private sector.

That’s what Snehal Antani, CEO of cybersecurity company Horizon3.ai, told me earlier this week. As the first chief technology officer of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), from 2018 to 2021, he ought to know. “I remember going to VC events with my ‘CTO of Splunk’ badge (the cybersecurity firm where he worked prior to JSOC) and everybody wanted to talk to me,” he says, noting that the enthusiasm waned when he then moved to a government role. “No one wanted the stigma of talking to people from the military side of the house.”

That changed dramatically after the Ukraine invasion: “You suddenly saw the use of open-source software, off-the-shelf drones and World War II-type tactics going behind enemy lines.”

In building Horizon3.ai, Antani took inspiration from Israel, pairing top talent from Special Operations, the NSA, and CIA with seasoned business operators who understand how to build and scale. “The Israelis recognized the value of the learn-it-all, solve-a-problem-under-pressure mindset of their elite units, and were able to bring together that veteran talent, venture capital, and economic prowess to build a startup unicorn factory, especially in cybersecurity.”

His goal is to bridge the gap between the military and Silicon Valley to identify and solve new threats through AI agents. “Our AI hacker stole or gained access to 3D CAD files for Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines in less than five minutes,” he says. His team has increasingly shown how nation-state actors are targeting small suppliers to hack large organizations and their global supply chains. Warfare is now a persistent state, not a discrete event. “The Russians pioneered it; the Chinese have been doing this for decades with intellectual property theft, and I think that is the future in which we’re operating. It’s no longer about ransomware and extortion,” he says.

And he thinks this White House gets it: “The climate right now in DC is about breaking bureaucracy,” he argues. “There is a much greater alignment of diplomacy, trade and military action.”

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Trump meets Putin today

President Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin will meet, one-on-one, at 3.30 p.m. ET in Alaska, at the Elmendorf Richardson military base, to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine. Ukraine was not invited. Trump has simultaneously talked up the meeting and lowered expectations about it. On the table: Territorial concessions to Russia (which are unacceptable to Ukraine), an end to further Russian aggression against Ukraine (which is unacceptable to Russia), and whether the U.S. and NATO will back its position with ongoing military support for Ukraine.

U.S. government may take a stake in Intel

Intel stock rose 7% on reports that the Trump administration is in talks to take a stake in the chipmaking company. It’s a sharp turnabout from last week, when the president called for CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s resignation over his alleged investments in China. The investment would be a boost for Intel’s much-delayed plan to build a $20 billion semiconductor plant in Ohio. There is a pattern here: The Trump Administration previously took a "golden share" in U.S. Steel when it was acquired by Nippon Steel, and the Pentagon bought $400 million in MP Materials stock.

Amazon launches new fresh grocery push

Amazon launched same-day delivery of fresh, perishable groceries in 1,000 U.S. cities on Wednesday—threatening rivals like Walmart and Instacart. The e-commerce giant’s latest attempt to enter the grocery game has already caused Walmart to shed $15 billion from its market cap.

Berkshire Hathaway sells more Apple

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold another $4 billion in Apple stock. Apple is down 7.04% YTD while the S&P 500 is up 10% over the same period.

China growth slows

The Chinese economy slowed sharply in July, macro data shows. While the economy is still growing, growth stats for factory activity, investment, and retail sales all declined from the previous month and urban unemployment rose. Although U.S. trade tariffs on Chinese exports are part of the problem, the government’s attempts to curb “involution”—internal competition between domestic companies—also played a role.

Walmart expands employee discount

Walmart COO Kieran Shanahan announced that the retail giant is extending its 10% employee discount to approximately 95% of the store’s regularly priced items. The move comes as food prices are up significantly year-over-year.

Must-read: Leave the stones alone!

You’ve probably seen those neatly stacked piles of rocks along rural walking trails, left by tourists looking for an Instagram moment. The problem is, those piles are destroying the homes of snails, insects, lizards and plants that need the rocks to not be moved around. One man is fighting back: Stuart Cox has gone viral by filming himself kicking over as many stacks as he can. The NYT has the details.