Tech billionaire Elon Musk is returning to an official advisory role in Donald Trump’s administration as a co-leader of a Pentagon study on the future of war. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced the initiative, called Project Meridian, in a speech at the Quantico military base on Wednesday.
Musk will share the leadership with Palmer Luckey, the 34-year-old co-founder of defence technology company Anduril Industries, and Newt Gingrich, the 83-year-old Republican former Speaker of the House. Hegseth described the project as “an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare”. Its members will include hand-picked private sector leaders and experts from innovation, academia and policy, and Hegseth has ordered the findings to be completed and submitted within 120 days.
The appointment deepens ties between the Pentagon and Musk’s businesses, which are already major defence contractors. SpaceX is building satellite networks for Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile defence shield, and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI signed a deal this year that allows the military to use its Grok chatbot on classified systems.
Musk previously headed the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, where he oversaw sweeping job cuts across the federal government before leaving in May 2025. He backed Trump in the 2024 election, but the two later fell out publicly over the president’s spending legislation. They have since reconciled. On Tuesday Musk sat next to Trump at a lunch with AI executives, where he joined other tech leaders in signing a voluntary AI safety accord. He also attended last week’s state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, and in May he flew to Beijing on Air Force One with the business delegation accompanying Trump.
His political spending has also resumed. Musk spent more than $250 million supporting Trump and other Republicans in the 2024 election, and he has given at least $90 million towards November’s midterm elections, according to tallies of Federal Election Commission filings. Those donations have gone to individual candidates as well as conservative political groups, and his return to a formal Pentagon role keeps him close to the administration as the midterms approach.
