Tech billionaire Elon Musk is set to return to formally advising US President Donald Trump’s administration by co-leading what the Pentagon described as a study on the future of war.
Before leaving in May 2025, Musk had led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after a public falling-out with Trump.
Speaking at the Quantico military base, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth stated that “Project Meridian” would be “an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare.”
Hegseth remarked, “We are leveraging a unique source of American advantage, one our adversaries do not have: our innovators, our senior leaders, and our technologists.”
Musk will co-lead Project Meridian with Palmer Luckey, the 34-year-old co-founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, and Newt Gingrich, the 83-year-old Republican former House speaker.
Musk backed Trump and aided his return to the White House, but the two later became embroiled in a highly publicized dispute over the president’s spending legislation.
Afterward, he went back to donating to Republican causes, giving multimillion-dollar sums to individual candidates and conservative political groups.
Hegseth said the project aims to “creatively look to the future and identify the domains that we must conquer and capabilities we must master.”
The project’s members will consist of hand-picked private sector leaders and subject matter experts drawn from across the innovation, academic, and policy ecosystems.
Hegseth said he has instructed that Project Meridian’s findings be finished and delivered within 120 days.
