# Recorded Future Recorded Future is a private threat-intelligence company based in Somerville, Massachusetts. It was incorporated in 2009 by Christopher Ahlberg, and early funding came from [[In-Q-Tel]], the CIA's venture arm, and Google Ventures. Insight Partners bought it for $780 million in 2019. [[Mastercard]] bought it from Insight for $2.65 billion, announced in September 2024 and completed in December 2024. Colin Mahony is now CEO. Its research arm, **Insikt Group**, publishes detailed public tracking of Russian influence operations. ## Russia work - **CopyCop / [[Storm-1516]].** Its first report (May 9, 2024) described a network of AI-rewritten fake news sites tied by infrastructure to [[Mark Dougan]]'s DC Weekly. A June 2024 follow-up recorded 120 new sites registered in three days as the network turned to the U.S. election. In September 2025 it reported that CopyCop is the same operation as Storm-1516, that it added at least 200 new sites that year, and that it runs on self-hosted, uncensored models built on Meta's Llama 3. It assessed the network as "very likely operated by" Dougan, with support from the [[Center for Geopolitical Expertise]] and the [[GRU]]. - **[[Operation Undercut]] (November 2024).** It exposed this operation and attributed it to the [[Social Design Agency]]. - **"Undesirable" in Russia.** On December 18, 2024, Russia's Prosecutor General declared the company an "undesirable organization," alleging cooperation with U.S. intelligence and help to Ukraine's information operations. Ahlberg replied: "Some things in life are rare compliments." ## Why it matters for the KB Recorded Future belongs on two maps in the vault: the [[In-Q-Tel]] pipeline from the intelligence community into Silicon Valley, and the counter-disinformation research field the American right has spent 2022–2026 attacking. So far it has drawn none of that fire. No congressional letters, lawsuits or campaigns against it were found. ## See Also - [[In-Q-Tel]] - [[Mastercard]] - [[Storm-1516]] - [[Operation Undercut]] - [[Social Design Agency]] - [[Graphika]]