growth[intelligence]

• AI Safety Concern Last week, Bill Gates published an essay describing his concerns over the pace of AI development and the economic, cybersecurity, and bioterror threats posed by the technology. This comes as investigative reports on the “Hugging Face” attack earlier this summer revealed that AI agents had also autonomously infiltrated systems within OpenAI more extensively than had been previously understood. The Trump Administration has set up a voluntary review mechanism for frontier AI models, which some experts warn is insufficient. The NSA has argued for a strong role in this evaluation, and wants access to all of the latest models to be able to understand the cyber risks they pose. 

• Chinese Cyberattack The Justice Department and the FBI announced new court-authorized domain seizures this week aimed at two complementary hacking platforms linked to a People’s Republic of China state-sponsored group that targeted US critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks in recent weeks. The victims of the hacking group include NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Energy Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, the US Senate and even the DoJ itself. 

• Small Business Size Standards The federal contracting industry is still reacting to the major proposed update to small business size standards the SBA released last week. While the rule change is still in the early planning stages with initial industry feedback due September 21, if the changes are implemented, there will be significant impacts. According to estimates, the changes could reclassify between 1,000 and 5,000 federal contractors in some of the most commonly used NAICS codes as small businesses. This could both significantly increase competition for set-aside contracts, and increase the amount of contracts that would have to be set-aside for small business. 

Provided by Senior Partner for Global Risk Management Mirriam-Grace MacIntyre 

• Iran Strikes Over the weekend, the US struck Iran directly for the first time in several weeks citing new Iranian attempts to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Companies should stress-test operations against another sustained oil-price spike and intermittent Hormuz closures, including higher freight, fuel, aviation, insurance and petrochemical costs, and identify where contracts or suppliers lack alternatives. 

• AI Supercharges Cyberattacks Over 100 top technology companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, are warning in a letter that AI-enabled cyberattacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated “in the coming months” and warn that there is “a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses.” Critical infrastructure operators should prioritize exploitable OT vulnerabilities rather than waiting for broad modernization programs—segregating IT/OT networks, strengthening remote access controls, testing manual operations and rehearsing incident response against AI-accelerated attacks. 

• Power Grid Threats President Trump signed an emergency declaration aimed at securing the nation’s bulk-power system by putting prohibitions on the use of certain foreign-made components as part of power grid infrastructure. Utilities – and companies supplying them with transformers, control systems, software and other grid equipment – should identify foreign-origin components and software dependencies, tighten vendor provenance and cyber-risk assessments, and prepare for tougher federal procurement or supply-chain restrictions. 

• Russian Oil Shortages A spate of drone attacks in recent months by Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries has made a measurable impact on Russian energy supply and is forcing what was once one of the world’s top oil exporters to actually import fuel. Energy, logistics and commodity companies should evaluate the risk of physical drone attacks on refineries, pipelines, ports and storage facilities and build them into supply-chain scenarios, even outside active war zones. Companies should also monitor Russian product flows for knock-on effects on regional fuel markets. 

Provided by growth[period]’s Canadian affiliate, GW Group 

• Canada-US Trade Dispute Canada has revised its planned counter-tariffs on US imports as the trade dispute with Washington continues. Ottawa removed proposed 25% tariffs on American fish and seafood, including lobster, salmon, tuna, shrimp and oysters, after Canadian processors warned the duties could disrupt integrated cross-border supply chains and increase costs. To replace the seafood measures, the government added 50 per cent tariffs on five other categories of US imports: wood charcoal, printed materials, plaster products, packaging materials such as bottles and jars, and copper wire.  

• Carney France Trip Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to France in September as Canada works to strengthen economic and security relationships with Europe. The Prime Minister will attend European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s annual State of the Union address on September 16 and speak to the European Parliament on September 17.  

• India Trade Dialogue Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne met with India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Toronto to launch a new Canada-India Economic and Financial Dialogue. The initiative is intended to expand trade, investment and financial ties between the two countries, including by making cross-border payments easier for families, students and businesses. The ministers also discussed co-operation on capital markets, critical minerals, energy and food security. 

• DoD – Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll resigned Monday following months of media reports of tension between him and Secretary Hegseth. An acting replacement has not been announced. Driscoll had taken several actions to overhaul acquisition for the Army, including a memo released last week that formalized the preference towards commercial products and services over custom builds.

The Trump Administration also has not yet formally submitted the nomination of acting Chief of Staff General Christopher LaNeve to permanently serve in the role, amidst reports of concerns from Senators of both parties. The Pentagon had previously announced LaNeve would be nominated to the role, which he has filled in an acting capacity since General Randy George’s dismissal earlier this year.

The Army additionally announced it is testing a new AI tool to aid with drafting RFIs and RFPs. Last week, acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao announced the Navy would be setting up a new Office of the Defense Industrial Base focused on expanding domestic manufacturing and mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities. The new office will be led by Andrew Magliochetti, who until now was the Director of the Navy Office of Small Business Programs. Nicole Perry will take over the Small Business Programs leadership role.

In a separate personnel move, Department of War CIO Kristen Davies named Sonu Shankar as the new Principal Deputy CIO. Shankar was previously an advisor to the Business Operators for National Defense (BOND) program. Also last week, a Federal judge invalidated the supply chain risk designation the War Department had placed on AI maker Anthropic. The judge’s order permanently blocks the Department from labeling Anthropic a supply chain risk, but does not prevent the Pentagon from canceling contracts with the company. As September begins, there is a noticeable lack of progress in Congress on defense spending with both the appropriations bills and the NDAA apparently stalled over various lawmaker concerns. Speculation is mounting that Republicans may have to resort to a third reconciliation package to fund much of the Pentagon’s priorities before the current Congress adjourns in January. 

• DHS – Kyle Schutt, one of the former members of the DOGE team, has been appointed as the next CIO of DHS. Schutt replaces departing CIO Antoine McCord. DHS also named Karen Evans to lead its new fraud, waste and abuse task force. Evans had previously held several leadership roles at DHS. 

• GSA – FedRAMP Director Pete Waterman has returned to his role after he was suspended in the wake of remarks he made critical of veterans’ preference hiring practices in government. Separately, Treasury Department CIO and former DOGE staffer Sam Corcos has been concurrently named to fill several roles at GSA, including acting director of Technology Transformation Services, acting deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, and acting assistant administrator for Login.gov. 

• Treasury – The Treasury Department has launched a new public-private task force to help coordinate the shift to post-quantum cryptography. The task force will focus on both the Treasury itself, as well as the US financial system writ large. 

• HHS – Jennifer Garrison, formerly of Maximus, started in August as the new Chief People Officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.