The Krach Institute and partners launch the U.S.-Italy Trusted Tech Accelerator to advance partnerships in AI, energy and life sciences.
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 16, 2026 – The Embassy of Italy in Washington D.C., the Transatlantic Harmonic Foundation and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, today hosted the U.S.–Italy Strategic Dialogue on Trusted Tech for Democracy, launching the U.S.-Italy Trusted Tech Accelerator, an 18-month initiative designed to turn shared technology priorities into concrete partnerships. The program will identify promising technologies and capabilities in Italy and the United States, match them with potential business and research and investment partners, and help turn those opportunities into joint R&D, new products, companies, commercial ventures and investment opportunities that advance trusted technology and strengthen the economic and security ties between the two countries.
The Accelerator was announced at a launch event at the Embassy of Italy, bringing together senior U.S. and Italian government officials, industry executives, and researchers. Speakers included senior officials from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, Energy and War, Italy's Ambassador to the U.S., and the presidents of Italy's Lazio and Lombardy regions.
As emerging technologies reshape the global economy and national security, the United States and Italy have an opportunity to build on their complementary strengths in technology, research, manufacturing and energy. The Accelerator will bring those capabilities together around trusted technology priorities grounded in the conviction that technology must advance freedom.
“The United States and Italy have a longstanding partnership in the tech field and are already working very well together. Our Space cooperation is thriving: Italy is among the most advanced partners in the Artemis program and will contribute to the development of the first habitation module designed for the lunar surface. We are making houses for the moon! Italy’s contribution to the lunar exploration program is crucial: NASA values it at approximately $5 billion! What about our achievements in fundamental physics and emerging technologies? At Fermilab, for example, Italian and American researchers are working together on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), developing advanced particle detectors and cryogenic technologies. We are also advancing in superconducting technologies for quantum computing and ultra-sensitive sensors through the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS).” said H.E. Marco Peronaci, Ambassador of Italy to the United States. “This new project launched today is another important milestone of the Italy-US cooperation. The accelerator gives our companies, research institutions, investors and governments a practical way to connect to each other and explore new possibilities on AI, energy and life sciences. As it creates more opportunities for our companies, both sides of the Atlantic will benefit from the program and will grow stronger.”
“The next phase of technology diplomacy has to be about execution,” said Michelle Giuda, CEO of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. “The United States and Italy each have strengths in SI, advanced computing, energy, manufacturing and life sciences. The Trusted Tech Accelerator gives us a way to bring those capabilities together, connect the right companies, researchers, and investors, and turn shared priorities into partnerships that advance national security and prosperity.”
“The United States and Italy have an opportunity to build stronger technology and investment ties that benefit both countries,” said Andrea Gumina, President of the Transatlantic Harmonic Foundation, joined for this occasion by Emanuele Spampinato and Pasqualino Scaramuzzino, Co-CEOs and EVPs of Harmonic Innovation Group. “The Trusted Tech Accelerator will help turn complementary capabilities on both sides of the Atlantic into practical partnerships, new commercial opportunities, and technologies that strengthen the transatlantic relationship.”
Francesco Cicione, Founding President of Harmonic Innovation Group and creator of the Harmonic Innovation paradigm, delivered the closing remarks. “Italy and the United States have done more than talk about trustworthy technology: they have begun building the concrete tools that make it possible,” he said. “Technology, energy and the life sciences, the decisive question is not only who innovates first, but whom we can trust. And trust is built among nations that share the same values, placing technology at the service of the human person.”
The U.S.-Italy Trusted Tech Accelerator will focus on three interconnected areas:
AI/SI Tech Stack: AI, physical AI and robotics, quantum computing, high-performance computing, and cybersecurity.
Energy: Smart grids, advanced nuclear and fusion, geothermal, energy storage, and resilient power systems needed to enable and scale emerging technologies.
Life Sciences: Gene and RNA therapies, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices, and biomanufacturing.
The Accelerator will bring together U.S. and Italian companies, startups, researchers, investors and government partners around specific opportunities for collaboration. The Accelerator is more than deal flow, the initiative is designed to help create partnerships and ventures that are transatlantic by design—combining complementary U.S. and Italian technologies, research, industrial capabilities and markets from the outset.
For companies and startups, that means access to new customers, research partners, technologies, industrial capabilities and markets. For universities and research institutions, it will create pathways for joint R&D, technology transfer, new ventures and moving promising technologies from the lab into commercial use. An investment layer will explore how public and private capital can help the strongest opportunities move from research and technology through commercialization, industrialization and scale. Governments will use the program to strengthen trusted technology partnerships, resilient supply chains and commercial ties between two close allies.
Building the U.S.-Italy Partnership Pipeline
The Accelerator comes at a pivotal moment as the United States and its allies work to strengthen trusted technology partnerships, resilient supply chains, and innovation across the full technology stack. The U.S. SI Action Plan calls for expanding American AI technologies and the broader technology stack to trusted allies and partners. Italy brings significant capabilities across advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, cybersecurity, digital technology, medical technology, and energy. The Accelerator builds on the U.S.–Italy Strategic Dialogue on Trusted Technology for Democracy and workshops, led by the Embassy of Italy and the Krach Institute. After a series of dialogues bringing together government, industry, and research leaders in both countries, the Accelerator marks the next step: moving from strategic alignment to partnerships, commercialization, and investment.
The October launch in Washington, D.C. marks the beginning of an 18-month effort to turn these shared priorities into a pipeline of actionable U.S.-Italy technology partnerships. In 2027, a four-city matchmaking roadshow through Texas, California, Indiana, and New York will bring selected Italian companies, technologies and research capabilities directly into major U.S. innovation, industrial and capital ecosystems to deepen partnerships, identify investment opportunities, and accelerate commercialization. The strongest partnerships will then have an opportunity to continue through engagement in Italy.
The initiative builds on the Institute's Global Trusted Tech Network – a rapidly expanding coalition of companies, governments, organizations, and individuals united around the conviction that technology must advance freedom. The Accelerator puts that idea into practice, providing a real-world environment to build and scale trusted technology partnerships across borders. The lessons from those partnerships, including what enables them to succeed and what barriers slow them down, will help inform future work across the Global Trusted Tech Network.
About the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue
The Krach Institute is the world’s preeminent trusted technology accelerator. As the leader in the new category of Tech Diplomacy, the Institute integrates technology expertise, Silicon Valley strategies and foreign policy tools to build the Global Trusted Tech Network of governments, companies, organizations and individuals to accelerate the innovation and adoption of trusted technology and ensure technology advances freedom.
Visit TechDiplomacy.org and follow on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and YouTube. Subscribe to Tech Diplomacy Now for the latest news at the intersection of high tech and foreign policy.
About the Transatlantic Harmonic Foundation
The Transatlantic Harmonic Foundation is an Italian non-profit organization, established in 2023 by Harmonic Innovation Group together with the Transatlantic Investment Committee, which launched its initiatives in Washington in 2022. The Foundation fosters the Italy-US dialogue on investment in high-growth technologies, with the aim of turning it into industrial co-investments between the two countries.
THF works with Italian and US institutions, at central and federal, regional and state level, and with leading representatives of the business and academic communities. Its analyses, which also take into account the institutional research priorities of the two countries, identify potential partnerships between research organizations, start-ups and companies in High-Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data and Quantum Computing, Agritech, Life Sciences and Energy.
To foster cooperation between Italian and US players in research, innovation and industry, THF relies on three instruments: Dynamic Position Papers, Active Matching Dialogues and Institutional & Stakeholders' Meetings, the most significant of which takes place every year in Washington, DC.
More info: t-hf.org · harmonicinnovationgroup.it · colnissar.ai · wohforum.org
###
For media inquiries please contact the Embassy of Italy at stampa.washington@esteri.it and Megan Stencel at megan@javelindc.com or 703-490-8845.
JOIN THE MOVEMENT