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The Pentagon Pegs the Cost of the Iran War, So Far, at $25 Billion from Daring Fireball RSS feed.
The Pentagon Pegs the Cost of the Iran War, So Far, at $25 Billion
Taegan Goddard, quoting the Financial Times last week:
The Pentagon said President Trump’s Iran war has cost the United States at least $25 billion, driven primarily by the military’s use of munitions, the Financial Times reports.
The New York Times had an interesting piece trying to put that number in context (gift link):
$25 billion is similar to:
- The annual budget of NASA.
- Spending on military aid to Israel after Oct. 7.
- Spending by U.S.A.I.D. before it was disbanded.
- The cost to expand Obamacare subsidies for one year.
These are all comparisons to other aspects of the U.S. federal budget. It’s interesting also to use this in comparison with the current moment in tech:
- OpenAI’s latest valuation of $852 billion (I love the 2) equals 34 Iran Wars.
- Anthropic’s $380 billion valuation equals 15 Iran Wars.
- Apple’s current four-year U.S. manufacturing commitment of “more than $500 billion” equals 20 Iran Wars.
- Google expects to spend between $91–93 billion in capital expenditures this calendar year, mostly related to AI infrastructure. That’s a little over 3 Iran Wars this year.
- Larry Ellison currently has a net worth of $220 billion. That’s just short of 9 Iran Wars. But since the start of the war on February 28, his net worth has grown $46 billion. That’s about 2 Iran Wars during the time of the actual Iran War thus far.