The Pentagon has enlisted tech billionaire Elon Musk to co-lead a new project aimed at identifying future warfare technologies and capabilities that the US military must master. 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 defence 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 planned "Golden Dome" missile defence shield. His artificial intelligence firm xAI this year signed a deal allowing the military to use its Grok chatbot on classified systems.
Hegseth said the project's purpose is to "creatively look to the future and identify the domains that we must conquer and capabilities we must master." Project members will include hand-picked private sector leaders and subject matter experts from across the innovation, academic and policy ecosystems. Hegseth said he has directed Project Meridian's findings to be completed and submitted within 120 days.