Billionaire Elon Musk to co-lead Pentagon study on the future of warfare

Billionaire Elon Musk will co-lead a new Pentagon study on the future of warfare, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday. It is the first formal role Musk has taken with the Trump administration since he left government in 2025.

Hegseth named Musk, Anduril Industries co-founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as co-directors of the effort, called Project Meridian. He announced it in a State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, where he unveiled six initiatives to overhaul the U.S. military.

The group has 120 days to deliver its findings, which Hegseth said would include a public report and a classified annex. It will work under Emil Michael, the Pentagon's under secretary for research and engineering, and will draw on outside technologists, business leaders and national security experts.

Hegseth said the study will focus on discovering, developing and fielding the weapons and systems the U.S. military will need in future conflicts, from under the earth to beyond the moon. He said it was not intended to produce new strategies or policies. The three co-directors attended the speech, and Hegseth said their first meeting would take place immediately afterward in a secure facility inside the building.

Hegseth also announced an Autonomous Warfare Command to build and scale robotic, drone and artificial intelligence capabilities across the armed forces. Musk and Luckey both run large businesses in those areas.

Musk is the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, one of the Pentagon's largest launch and satellite contractors. Luckey's Anduril makes autonomous drones, counter-drone systems and other weapons and has won a growing share of Pentagon contracts. Gingrich served as speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999.

Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting effort that cut federal jobs and contracts, during the first months of President Donald Trump's second term. He left in May 2025, and the two men clashed publicly weeks later over Trump's tax and spending bill.

Musk's role in Project Meridian is likely to renew questions about conflicts of interest. SpaceX holds billions of dollars in contracts with the Defense Department and NASA. Tesla and Musk's artificial intelligence businesses are building technologies the military is increasingly interested in buying.