Silicon Valley's Pivot to Defense: Tech Giants Join Forces with the Pentagon

Silicon Valley swings back to defense

Driving the news: The Army announced earlier this month that four tech executives would become lieutenant colonels in the new Reserve Detachment 201: Meta CTO Adam Bosworth, OpenAI product head Kevin Weil, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar and Bob McGrew, a Palantir and OpenAI veteran. These new commissions put a human face on an epochal shift of tech industry energy into defense work. Meanwhile, everyone is promoting AI as the all-purpose answer to taming the Pentagon's vast unwieldy systems and unlocking a competitive edge for the U.S. in its global conflicts and rivalries, most urgently with China. Industry critics have painted this shift as a MAGA-fueled power grab by a new generation of contractors -- like Palantir, Anduril and Elon Musk's companies -- and investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Peter Thiel. Yes, but: While those players are definitely making hay as their allies (former venture capitalist Vice President Vance, White House tech adviser David Sacks) have assumed power, tech's new defense mania is part of a decades-long oscillation by the industry. Our thought bubble: Tech's reputation as a left-leaning industry -- inspired by its San Francisco Bay Area roots and the counterculture heritage of both the personal computing and internet revolutions -- is largely a myth. Between the lines: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's emphasis on a "culture of lethality" might once have raised hackles in tech boardrooms and among staff. What to watch: Support for the tech-Pentagon alliance -- both inside firms and among the broader public -- could splinter if AI, autonomous vehicles and other advanced tech plays a high-profile role in Trump administration immigration enforcement efforts or military deployments in U.S. cities.

Big Tech joins the military, with Meta, Palantir and OpenAI in front

Since Donald Trump's presidential election victory, major tech companies have abandoned years of policies restricting military work and sought out lucrative defense contracts and deeper connections with the Pentagon. The companies that build Americans' everyday digital tools are now getting into the business of war. Tech giants are adapting consumer AI systems for battlefield use, meaning every ChatGPT query and Instagram scroll now potentially trains military targeting algorithms. Meanwhile, safety guardrails are being dismantled just as these dual-use technologies become central to warfare. But for years, the reverse flow barely existed. When tech companies attempted to collaborate with the military, their employees revolted. Google employees staged unprecedented protests over Project Maven, a Pentagon program that used AI to analyze drone footage. Almost 5,000 workers signed petitions demanding that the company cancel the contract, and dozens resigned. The backlash worked. Google didn't renew the Maven contract, and it established AI principles that restricted military applications. For years afterward, major tech companies maintained policies against weapons development, with employees successfully pushing back against military partnerships. That resistance crumbled as the economics of AI became unsustainable. Training and running large language models costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and consumer revenue alone can't cover the bills. For many companies, working with the military isn't just an opportunity -- it may be essential for survival. The most striking symbol of this partnership will take place Friday, when Silicon Valley executives will literally put on Army uniforms. Meta's chief technology officer, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, Palantir's CTO, Shyam Sankar, and OpenAI executives Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew will be sworn in as lieutenant colonels in the Army's inaugural "Detachment 201" program. The tech reservists will serve about 120 hours a year, advising on AI-powered systems and assisting the Defense Department in recruiting other high-tech specialists. They'll be spared basic training and given more flexibility than typical reservists to work remotely. Due to their private-sector status, each will hold the rank of lieutenant colonel, placing them immediately in senior leadership roles. "We need to go faster, and that's exactly what we are doing here," Gen. Randy George, the Army's chief of staff, told The Wall Street Journal. The arrangement creates an unprecedented level of integration between private companies and military planning. The executives won't work on projects involving their own employers, but they'll have direct input into military strategy while their companies compete for massive defense contracts. The corporate partnerships are moving just as fast. Last month, Meta and Anduril announced they're collaborating to build augmented reality headsets for U.S. soldiers, starting with technology that provides real-time battlefield intelligence through heads-up displays. The devices will rely on Meta's Llama AI model and Anduril's command and control software. The goal, according to Anduril's CEO, is to "turn warfighters into technomancers." OpenAI removed values such as "impact-driven," which emphasized that employees "care deeply about real-world implications," replacing them with "AGI focus." Google modified its safety framework to suggest it would only follow guidelines if competitors adopted similar measures. OpenAI and others have explicitly reversed previous bans on military applications. Meanwhile, oversight is actually weakening. In May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cut the Pentagon's independent weapons testing office in half, reducing staff from 94 to 45 people. The office, established in the 1980s after weapons performed poorly in combat, now has fewer resources to evaluate AI systems just as they become central to warfare. The timing couldn't be more significant. As conflicts like the Israel-Iran war demonstrate the growing role of AI in warfare, the companies that once resisted military partnerships are now integral to America's defense strategy. The question facing Americans is whether they're comfortable with this new arrangement -- one in which their daily digital interactions train the AI systems that target enemies abroad.

🌎 Tech to the trenches

Meta is collaborating with Anduril to produce augmented reality headsets for soldiers. OpenAI just landed a $200 million military contract. And with President Donald Trump pushing a proposed $1 trillion defense budget, the rush to weaponize consumer AI is no longer theoretical -- it's the business model. Just a few years ago, employees at Google walked out over Pentagon partnerships. Now, the economic reality of building advanced AI -- which costs hundreds of millions to train and operate -- is making military dollars not just attractive, but necessary. Alongside the government money, though, come eroded safety guardrails and thinning oversight: OpenAI and Google have quietly walked back restrictions on military uses, and the Pentagon has slashed its independent weapons testing staff by more than 50%.

Tech power players reveal why Silicon Valley is suddenly ready to...

In the span of a few years, Silicon Valley executives have shifted from viewing Pentagon collaboration as war-mongering to joining the US Army Reserve. And if the response Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar -- who has joined the newly formed Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps -- has received is any indication, the tech industry's enthusiasm is just beginning. Sankar told me he has been inundated with messages from people in the industry who want to do the same. "Hundreds of people have reached out to me," he said. "Service is contagious and people respond." Last Friday, Sankar was sworn into Detachment 201, along with Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew, OpenAI's former Chief Research Office. The four will serve part-time as senior advisors. The purpose of the new initiative, the Army said in a statement, "is to fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation." Sankar envisions a future where the Department of Defense will prioritize recruiting in the Bay Area. "You need to be where the innovative talent is," he said. "We have the facilities they don't have." This surge of patriotism marks a dramatic change for an industry that has, in recent years, shunned defense tech firms. Scale CEO Alexandr Wang told me his company's decision to work with the Department of Defense five years ago was enormously controversial at the time. "We were a bit of a pariah in the AI industry because all the other AI companies were were going the other way. They were moving away from working with on defense or security applications," Wang said. "And now I'm seeing that pendulum swing back where, even in Silicon Valley, there's a clear recognition and moral imperative that we need to be utilizing AI to support, support our war fighters, support our natural security mission." Over the past year, OpenAI secured a $200 million contract with the DoD to develop AI capabilities for national security, marking its first major government contract. Meta partnered with Anduril Industries to develop augmented reality (AR) products for US military use. Google has re-entered the defense sector by reversing earlier AI policies that prevented it from supporting national security. That's a big switch from 2018, when Google walked away from the Pentagon's Project Maven (which used AI and machine learning for military targeting) after thousands of employees -- touting the company's "Don't be evil" mantra -- signed a letter demanding the company abandon the project. David Ulevitch founded a16z's American Dynamism firm, which invests in founders and companies that support the national interest, including in the fields of aerospace, defense, public safety, education and housing. He told me that Google's overreaction was a "watershed moment" that spurred others in the industry to return to working on defense and warfare. "The history of Silicon Valley is rooted in supporting the national interest ," he said, "but somewhere along the way, many lost sight of that. "Founders have realized that building in the national interest doesn't just feel good and patriotic -- which it is -- but represents a generational opportunity to build the iconic companies that will power and advance our country for decades to come." During World War II, Frederick Terman, the Stanford engineering dean often called the "father of Silicon Valley," built a defense tech ecosystem at the university, securing government contracts and establishing the Stanford Industrial Park. And companies like Hewlett-Packard, Varian Associates, Shockley Semiconductor and Fairchild Semiconductor supplied critical electronics for military radar, missiles and communication systems. The stakes might be higher now, with AI's potential to transform governance or even create an extinction event. And many tech leaders have worked with China -- and recognize how that country doesn't play fair. Wang warned: "If China gets ahead and America's brightest minds don't tackle national security, what does that world look like?" Silicon Valley's embrace of patriotism coincides with a cultural shift as companies crack down on all things "woke," decreasing DEI requirements and curtailing climate pledges. Of course, along with patriotism comes the potential for enormous profit. Palantir, which relies on the government for more than 40% of its revenue, has come under scrutiny -- with lawmakers asking the company to share details of a project that could help the government create a database of Americans, according to a New York Times report. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) has concerns about data privacy and tech companies getting too close to the government, emphasizing the need for a balance between innovation and security. "You can innovate while safeguarding information," he told me. He said technologies like blockchain, which could track access to American data, offer a promising solution to enhance privacy protections. Relying on American companies is arguably the best way to do that. "Ninety percent of all tech is American... it's one of our greatest assets," Sankar said. "This is about the importance and primacy of people. When we look at history, innovators like John Boyd, who created the F-16, [have from] the private sector."