Four big tech executives the Army directly commissioned to be lieutenant colonels, with no military background, will not recuse themselves from business dealings with the Department of Defense -- as the Pentagon, particularly the Army, cozies up to Silicon Valley.
Earlier this month, the Army announced Detachment 201, the name being a reference to HTTP code, for the newly commissioned executives of Palantir, Meta and OpenAI. The new formation is set to recruit tech executives to work on major Army challenges, but the service has not articulated exactly what those individuals would do -- instead focusing on recruiting talent and creating jobs around them.
"They're not making acquisition decisions, they're not senior decision-makers," Steve Warren, an Army spokesperson, told reporters Wednesday when asked about what oversight mechanisms are in place over the new unit. "It's not in our interest to show any favoritism to a company -- that would be the exact opposite of what we're trying to do, right? What we want is competition. That's what we're looking for; these guys will help us think about that."
The four include Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer for Palantir; Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer of Meta; Kevin Weil, chief product officer of OpenAI; and Bob McGrew, adviser at Thinking Machines Lab and former chief research officer for OpenAI.
They'll take part in an extremely accelerated two-week training course to familiarize themselves with the Army. Some of that will be online training and the rest will be at Fort Benning, Georgia. It's unclear whether they'll have to adhere to typical service standards including fitness and marksmanship.
Sankar has pledged to donate all of the money he earns as a part-time officer to Army Emergency Relief, the de facto nonprofit for soldiers and their families, according to a Palantir spokesperson. Pay for a part-time officer at his rank with no time in service would amount to roughly $10,000 per year but could be higher or lower depending on how much time they commit to the Army.
Last year, Sankar sold Palantir stock amounting to $367.9 million and has made numerous other multimillion-dollar deals. None of the other executives, now Army Reserve officers, responded to requests for comment. None of them were made available for interviews.
Just before Bosworth was sworn in, Meta announced a deal with defense technology company Anduril to pursue military contracts that involve artificial intelligence and augmented reality, which could be worth millions of dollars.
OpenAI also announced a $200 million defense contract within days of Bosworth being sworn in to develop an artificial intelligence tool. Palantir has been involved in numerous enormous federal deals, particularly during the second Trump administration, including a $759 million Army contract for AI development and another massive project to compile data on Americans.
While in regular formations, lieutenant colonel is a senior rank that garners respect. Inside the Pentagon, it's often the bare minimum rank to enter the room -- a relatively junior-grade officer in a sea of top brass and high-level civilian decision-makers. The law allows the military to direct commission up to the rank of colonel, but that would require Senate confirmation.
Military.com spoke with nearly two dozen Army and Pentagon officials -- from midgrade officers to senior brass -- as well as defense analysts and Capitol Hill aides. Across the board, there was strong support for the concept of pulling high-end civilian tech talent into uniform, particularly in a bureaucracy often faulted for its glacial pace of change.
"If we end up in a war in an Indo-Pacific conflict, we're going to need to tap more people like this," said Katherine Kuzminski, a national security personnel expert at the Center for a New American Security.
And the potential benefits go beyond Silicon Valley-style innovation.
"Tech is the hot new thing, but think about the logistics piece," Kuzminski added. "How do you capture that from UPS or FedEx? How do we feed our service members in a contested environment?"
Still, nearly all sources raised red flags about how the Army handled the rollout, calling it a self-inflicted optics nightmare. Service officials have insisted none of those executives will be involved in decision-making on government contracts, yet there is virtually no systemic oversight on that potential conflict of interest.
The decision to grant officer commissions to executives with no military background, without clear recusal from future defense business, sparked concerns of ethical lapses and blurred lines.
Several officials warned that any future Pentagon deals involving the companies could be tainted by perceptions of favoritism, potentially souring relationships with competing contractors and casting a shadow over future acquisitions.
Most officials interviewed see long-term promise for the Army, but the initiative is also emerging as a flashpoint -- the latest sign of the service's growing relationship with Silicon Valley, a rapidly warming connection that's turning into a growing concern for lawmakers worried about big-tech influence and lobbying.
Much of the concern centers on what, exactly, wealthy tech executives already wielding outsized influence stand to gain from a formal relationship with the Army.
Service officials insist patriotism is the driving force. However, while the Pentagon has long tapped private-sector talent through advisory roles and consulting gigs, issuing uniforms marks a largely unprecedented step in the modern era.
While an executive role will likely have more influence than a reserve officer with no notable title, working directly with the Army would likely yield more networking opportunities within the Pentagon and constant direct contact with senior Army leaders.
"When it isn't obvious what rich guys get out of something, that's what worries me," one Capitol Hill national security adviser told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.
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