Musk and Luckey help lead Pentagon's Project Meridian, raising conflict fears

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced "Project Meridian: The Future of Warfare" on September 30. It is a study of automated and AI-powered weaponry. Its three leaders are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey, co-founder of defense technology firm Anduril. The study is expected to take 120 days. NPR reports that the pairing has raised ethical concerns about the authors' potential conflicts of interest.

Hegseth's announcement said rapid advances in artificial intelligence, autonomy, directed energy, robotics and biotechnology "will profoundly alter the character of warfare", and that the United States "must anticipate future operational environments and act decisively to develop the tools to dominate in them." Hegseth said he has directed Emil Michael, the Defense Department's chief technology officer, to commission the project through the MITRE Corporation, a nonprofit that manages federally funded research. Few details about scope were released in Hegseth's one-page memo. A Department of Defense spokesperson said the effort will examine the technologies and operational concepts needed to sustain U.S. military advantage across the full spectrum of future warfighting domains over a 10-20 year time horizon. The announcement came days before an expected speech by President Trump at an Anduril facility in Baltimore on Tuesday.

The companies involved are major defense suppliers. Anduril builds military drones used on land, sea and in the air, and received initial funding from Peter Thiel. SpaceX has secured over $8 billion in U.S. defense contracts in 2026 alone, according to government contract announcements. Its products include Starshield, a military-grade low-Earth-orbit satellite network for secure government communications, and its chatbot Grok is also being used by the Pentagon. The source gives no contract figure for Anduril.

Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota professor of corporate law and former chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, said there is a concern that the study would be guided by the pair's own financial interests. "They all want to sell stuff," he said, adding that Musk, like other contractors, wants to make a lot of money selling AI to the Defense Department and is not acting as a neutral public service. A former senior Defense Department official, speaking anonymously out of fear of reprisal from the Trump administration, called it "a massive conflict of interest". The official said both men have billions of dollars in current defense contracts and that the study could shape what munitions the U.S. buys: it could recommend more drones or space-based assets, which Luckey and Musk build, and fewer tanks, which they do not.

The rules that apply depend on employment status, and the Department of Defense did not disclose whether Musk and Luckey were hired as special government employees (as Musk was when he led the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting effort) or as contractors. Executive branch employees are bound by a federal criminal law that bars them from taking part in government decisions affecting their own money or the financial interests of their family and business. Contractors are not subject to that law. The Department of Defense did not respond to questions about potential conflicts, and SpaceXAI and Anduril did not respond to requests for comment. A Defense Department spokesperson said MITRE is responsible for the analysis and recommendations and will apply appropriate conflict-of-interest and information safeguards.

A senior Government Accountability Office official, speaking anonymously because they are not authorized to speak to the press on issues without published reports, said it is common for the government to assemble task forces with industry leaders, but the findings will need to be scrutinized. The official said participants are supposed to sign safeguards keeping them away from procurement activities, and questioned the point of a new task force given that many people have long been thinking about the issue. Another former Pentagon official, also anonymous, was less concerned: there are always many efforts in the Pentagon and the services to ponder the future of war, and they will likely feed into Project Meridian. In that official's view, sitting on a panel that makes recommendations, which Congress can accept or reject, differs from writing a requirement for a defense system and then bidding on it.

Painter also said the second Trump administration has applied different ethical standards than its predecessors, including holding stocks in companies that could profit from government contracts. In the Bush administration, he said, everyone who joined the Defense Department had to sell defense stocks, and he had never seen nearly as many financial conflicts in any other administration.

Key facts

Hegseth announced Project Meridian on September 30: a study of automated and AI-powered weaponry led by Newt Gingrich, Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey, expected to take 120 days.
SpaceX has secured over $8 billion in U.S. defense contracts in 2026 alone, per government contract announcements; Luckey's Anduril builds military drones.
Painter and an anonymous former senior Defense official say the pair's financial interests could shape the study; a DoD spokesperson says MITRE will apply conflict-of-interest safeguards.
The Defense Department did not disclose whether Musk and Luckey are special government employees or contractors, which determines whether a federal criminal conflict-of-interest law applies.
The study is to be commissioned through MITRE and will look across a 10-20 year horizon; Hegseth's one-page memo gave few scope details.

Why it matters

The study could shape the types of munitions the U.S. buys in the future, according to a former senior Defense Department official. Two of its three leaders run companies that sell the kind of systems it may favor: drones and space-based assets. That is the core of the conflict-of-interest worry. The project is also framed broadly, covering AI, autonomy, directed energy, robotics and biotechnology over a 10-20 year horizon, and it follows SpaceX's over $8 billion in 2026 defense contracts.

Who it affects

The Pentagon and the military services, whose future procurement the study could influence. Defense contractors, including SpaceX and Anduril, who sell drones, satellite networks and AI. Congress, which the former Pentagon official said can accept or reject panel recommendations. Taxpayers are implicitly the buyers, though the source does not frame it that way. Gingrich is named as a leader; the source does not say he has any financial conflict.

How to use it

For readers following defense or AI policy, the points to watch are: what the 120-day study recommends; whether the Department of Defense discloses if Musk and Luckey are special government employees or contractors, since that decides which rules apply; and how MITRE, which is responsible for the analysis and recommendations, applies its stated conflict-of-interest and information safeguards. The GAO official said the findings will need scrutiny.

How solid is it

This is NPR reporting with a mix of named and anonymous sources. The facts of the announcement, the leaders, the 120-day timeline and the $8 billion figure are stated directly. The sharpest criticism, "a massive conflict of interest", comes from an anonymous former senior Defense Department official; Painter is the one named critic. No named official on the record calls it a conflict. The Department of Defense, SpaceXAI and Anduril did not respond to questions or comment on the concerns, so their side comes only from a spokesperson's statement about MITRE's safeguards.

Risks and caveats

The study has not recommended anything yet. Hegseth's memo gave few details about scope, and the employment status of Musk and Luckey is undisclosed. Not everyone is alarmed: another former Pentagon official was less concerned, noting that sitting on a panel is different from writing a requirement and then bidding on it. The GAO official said participants are supposed to sign safeguards keeping them away from procurement, but added that attention to the results is still warranted, and called the motivations for creating the task force unclear. Painter's broader criticism of the administration's ethical standards is his view, as reported by NPR.

“They all want to sell stuff”

— Richard Painter, University of Minnesota professor of corporate law and former chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration