Charles Archer6 Oct 2025 08:11
Even though I sold out on Friday, I notice this very bullish new article from Charles Archer this morning. Maybe a rethink is on the cards as this is very interesting:-
Defence Holdings
We're just getting started.
Charles Archer
Oct 6
Good Morning Team.
I had the pleasure once again of speaking to Defence Holdings’ CTO Andy McCartney, of Microsoft fame, and to Andrew Webber, Chief Partnership Officer at Whitespace.
As a reminder, the two companies are working through the Defence Technologies partnership to deliver sovereign tech solutions at a wartime pace.
Here’s what’s wild: Defence Holdings is actively working with MAG7 hyperscalers, commercialisation drops in December, and most people still haven’t connected the dots on what’s actually being built here.
Let me spell it out.
Project Ixian isn’t just another defence tech initiative. It’s the UK’s first properly sovereign AI product built specifically to combat information warfare.
And it couldn’t have better timing - the UK Government’s Strategic Defence Review 2025 literally puts countering disinformation and cyber manipulation at the centre of national defence strategy.
Ixian runs on Google Distributed Cloud in air-gapped mode. Think about that for a second. You get hyperscale AI performance (the kind that normally requires massive internet connectivity) but completely disconnected from the internet. Zero exposure but complete data sovereignty.
Can you just ‘Use’ Google’s Air-Gapped Cloud?
No.
You can’t simply log in and start running workloads. It’s not part of Google’s public cloud suite. It’s a sovereign-grade platform, reserved for governments, defence contractors and national security partners operating at the very highest classification levels.
Google’s air-gapped environment is exactly what it sounds like — physically isolated from the internet.
No external connectivity.
No cloud console.
No updates flowing in from Mountain View.
Everything — from maintenance to machine learning model updates — happens within a sealed, sovereign environment.
That isolation is the point. It ensures that even Google itself has no operational visibility once the system is deployed. The data, workloads and inference layers stay entirely under the control of the host nation or authorised defence entity.
To gain access, you need formal approval — both from Google’s Public Sector and Defence division, and typically from your national authority (in the UK, that means the MOD or NCSC).
The approval process isn’t a rubber stamp:
Your organisation must be a recognised government agency or certified defence supplier.
Your facility must meet strict physical and cybersecurity standards, including controlled personnel access and offline operational zones.
Deployment is performed by Google engineers or an authorised integrator.
As for Andy, he's only just getting warmed up.
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