America’s 250th anniversary should be more than a commemoration. It should be a challenge.

For two and a half centuries, the United States has endured because each generation built what the moment required: ships, railroads, factories, aircraft, semiconductors, satellites, software. American strength comes from turning national purpose into real capability.

I have worn the flag in three different ways. I competed for the United States as an Olympian. I later served as a Navy SEAL. Today, I work with founders building technologies that will shape America’s future security and prosperity.

Those arenas are different, but they teach the same lesson. Winning is not an abstraction. It is preparation, adaptation and execution under pressure. In the pool, no one cared about your plan once the race began. In the teams, no one cared how impressive a technology looked in a briefing; if it failed when the environment got ugly, the bandwidth disappeared or the enemy adapted. The only question was whether it worked.

That standard matters now because America is entering a new era of strategic competition. Artificial intelligence is not simply another software category. It is becoming a foundation for defense, manufacturing, energy, cybersecurity, space, logistics and intelligence. The countries that lead in AI will have faster decision-making, stronger supply chains, more resilient infrastructure and more capable militaries.

Washington appears to understand the stakes. The White House AI Action Plan is organized around accelerating innovation, building American AI infrastructure and leading internationally on AI security. The Pentagon’s 2026 AI strategy calls for becoming an AI-first force. Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced Deal Team Six, an effort to........

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