Musk Rejoins Team Trump To Co-Lead Pentagon Study On Warfare Future
Elon Musk has been appointed to co-lead 'Project Meridian,' a Pentagon study focused on the future of warfare. This role marks his return to advising the Trump administration following his previous work on government efficiency.
Why it matters
The appointment underscores the deepening integration between private tech sector leaders and the US military-industrial complex.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk will make a return to officially advising US President Donald Trump's government by co-leading what the Pentagon called a study on the future of war.Musk served as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he spearheaded sweeping job cuts across the US federal government, before departing in May 2025.In a speech Wednesday at the Quantico military base, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said "Project Meridian" will be "an effort led by America's best minds to study the future of warfare.""We are leveraging a unique source of American advantage, one our adversaries do not have: our innovators, our senior leaders and our technologists," Hegseth said.Musk will be a co-leader of Project Meridian alongside Palmer Luckey, the 34-year-old co-founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, and Newt Gingrich, the 83-year-old Republican former House speaker.Musk's companies are already major Pentagon contractors, including SpaceX building satellite networks for Trump's…
Also covering this story
4 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
Pete Hegseth appoints Elon Musk to US taskforce on future of warfare
Pentagon’s new war machine: Drone command, AI push and a plan for future battlefields
Pete Hegseth's got a new vision for the military. It leans on drone swarms, chaplains, and tech leaders like Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey.
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey to help decide what the military should do next
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in