Gold Rush: Top Trump Officials’ Silicon Valley Ties

Update: On August 27, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ethics officials provided POGO with a record regarding Thomas M. Williams that reflects a sale of $1 million to $5 million of Palantir stock options at his wife’s direction on May 9. OMB did not provide this information prior to publication despite POGO’s emailed queries to OMB’s press team on August 15 and August 19 asking if Williams had divested from any assets, including Palantir. POGO again asked OMB’s press office whether Williams had divested from Palantir on August 27, and they again refused to answer the question. Williams’ financial disclosure, last revised on June 24, did not reflect this May transaction. On August 31, CNN reported that Williams recused from matters involving Palantir and five other companies, and that Barbaccia divested his Anduril stake – information that OMB also did not provide to POGO despite specific requests. POGO has updated the story with this new information.

A number of top Trump appointees have had significant financial and employment ties — including previously unreported stock holdings valued up into the millions — to rising defense technology companies, prompting conflict of interest questions. These Silicon Valley-rooted companies like Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries have federal contracts and are trying to win more. Among the biggest pots of gold they are jointly trying to tap into is the very costly and controversial “Golden Dome” missile defense program. Likely running into the hundreds of billions of dollars, it’s seen as a potential money-making bonanza by tech start-ups and defense contracting behemoths alike.

These entanglements of powerful government officials and cutting-edge contracting firms, amid a broader industry effort to weaken ethics restrictions, are leading critics such as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to express concerns. She says these conflicts of interest have the potential to improperly influence government decisions affecting billions of taxpayer dollars.

“Defense officials’ loyalty should be to our national security, not to lining their own pockets,” Warren told POGO. “For months now, I’ve sounded the alarm about potential corruption related to the Golden Dome, and these conflicts of interests raise new questions about whether the program is being used to enrich Trump administration officials rather than keep our country safe.”

One top Trump appointee who has had a hefty stake in one of these companies is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official overseeing defense programs, Thomas M. Williams.

Williams had at least $2 million and potentially up to $10 million in Palantir stock through his spouse, a former Palantir employee, according to his financial disclosure that was last updated in June and obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). After the publication of this story, OMB's ethics office provided POGO with a record that reflects a sale of $1 million to $5 million of Palantir stock options at Williams' wife's direction on May 9 — a transaction that was not reflected in his financial disclosure.

To avoid violating a criminal conflict of interest law, Williams “would have to recuse entirely from Golden Dome and any other defense contracts Palantir could be a part of as well as regulations applicable to defense contractors generally,” said Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House and a University of Minnesota Law School professor, in an email to POGO. (Painter's remarks were provided before POGO learned of the May stock sale.)

In recent months, Williams has twice reposted Missile Defense Agency events soliciting industry involvement in Golden Dome on his LinkedIn profile, all while OMB has played a key role in pushing Congress to fund the program.

Prior to publication, an OMB spokesperson did not address POGO’s questions about whether Williams has received a conflict of interest waiver, whether he or his spouse have divested their Palantir assets, or whether he has recused himself from any matters. In response to POGO’s questions, which highlighted Painter’s concern about Williams, the OMB spokesperson emailed that the allegations that he could have a conflict of interest are “completely false.” After this story was originally published, OMB informed CNN that Williams recused himself from matters involving six companies, including Palantir.

Also inside OMB, Federal Chief Information Officer Gregory Barbaccia is a former Palantir employee and has between a $100,001 and $250,000 stake in Anduril through a venture capital firm (Anduril is not publicly traded), as well as Palantir stock holdings potentially worth up to $15,000, according to his financial disclosure obtained by POGO. (POGO previously reported on his Palantir holdings.)

Barbaccia has been calling himself the first “federal chief artificial intelligence officer” and his role includes shaping government-wide artificial intelligence policies that are issued by OMB, which Palantir sought to influence in the Biden era. The U.S. military anticipates using artificial intelligence in Golden Dome.

“Greg Barbaccia and Tom Williams went through the same process as every OMB employee, supervised by OMB ethics attorneys, to ensure that they are in full compliance with all ethics rules,” the OMB spokesperson told POGO. Palantir and Anduril did not respond to requests for comment. OMB informed CNN after POGO’s story was published that Barbaccia had divested his Anduril stake.

The Golden Dome: “A Death Star-Style Project”

President Donald Trump launched the Golden Dome program with a January 27, 2025, executive order. In a subsequent press conference, the White House said Golden Dome will cost $175 billion to build in three years, coinciding with the end of Trump’s term.

Golden Dome comes after decades of efforts to create a missile defense system that defends the whole United States against a limited attack using long-range missiles — and those efforts have been beset with technical challenges despite over $250 billion spent, according to the Arms Control Association.

The White House’s Golden Dome cost estimate and timeframe are seen by many experts as unrealistic, with one projection pegging its price tag as closer to half a trillion dollars. Senator Tim Sheehy (R-MT), a supporter of the program who launched the Senate Golden Dome Caucus, has said, “It will likely cost in the trillions if and when Golden Dome is completed.”

The system would rely on vast networks of sensors to detect missile launches and track their trajectories. Sensor data would need to be linked and rapidly processed to accurately direct interceptors — which may be deployed in space — to destroy threats and avoid decoys. A test of the system has been tentatively scheduled just before the 2028 election with the aim of giving Trump a political “win,” one unnamed source told CNN.

Golden Dome comes as Palantir and several other companies, including Anduril Industries and SpaceX, are vying to compete and partner with the Defense Department’s traditional contractors, like Lockheed Martin. From space launch capabilities to embedding artificial intelligence in military systems, these upstart contractors tout themselves as bringing innovation to the national security arena, with Palantir doing exceptionally well during this administration. And these companies have been angling for an advantage in winning a share of the lucrative Golden Dome project.

Earlier this year, representatives of Palantir, Anduril, and SpaceX met with Trump officials to discuss Golden Dome in what one unnamed source told Reuters was “a departure from the usual acquisition process.” All three companies also directly pitched Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CNN reported.

Experts say managing data and harnessing artificial intelligence will be key to Golden Dome’s success. Those are hallmark capacities that Palantir sells to the Pentagon, and Palantir and Anduril have announced a partnership to embed AI in military systems. A draft statement of work released in late July says the Pentagon will leverage “artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled applications where pertinent” to support missile defense systems.

Yet, even with AI, Golden Dome faces significant technical challenges that have long bedeviled missile defense projects, with a senior Pentagon official calling the program’s aims a “monster systems engineering problem.” As such, Golden Dome has the signs of a program that will likely run overbudget and underperform, according to one expert.

“The military systems that tend to have the biggest impact and be most innovative and most important tend to be high-speed, low-cost systems like a droid in the Star Wars universe, and Death Stars tend to cost more, take longer, and do less than they were designed to do,” said Dan Ward, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel who has extensively studied innovation in weapons programs. “Simple systems tend to outperform their specs.”

“This Golden Dome for America has a lot of attributes of a Death Star-style project, right?” Ward told POGO. “It’s big. It’s complicated. It’s expensive.”

And, according to critics, it’s a target-rich environment for corruption.

OMB and the White House’s “Signature Program”

It is hard to understate the prominence of Golden Dome in the second Trump administration. “Golden Dome appears to be a signature program not just for outer space but for the new administration’s broader approach to national security,” said an August report by The Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit funded by the federal government. “Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, no other military capability has been the subject of both a presidential press conference and executive order.”

And through that executive order, the White House has given its own OMB a prominent role in Golden Dome by tasking it with helping to develop a budget plan.

Since then, OMB pushed Golden Dome by name in at least four official communications to Congress from May through July, seeking legislative authorization for the program and tens of billions of dollars to jumpstart it.

OMB’s May 2 budget request sent to Congress states that it “makes a down-payment on the development and deployment of a Golden Dome for America, a next-generation missile defense shield.” Then, on both May 21 and June 28, OMB pushed for authorizing the Golden Dome program in two-page statements of administration policy supporting the wide-ranging “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law on July 4. Again, on July 15, OMB issued another statement urging Congress to fund the newly authorized Golden Dome.

“The President campaigned on the Golden Dome, and it’s a top priority for him — so it was always going to be in the President’s budget and a request of the administration in the appropriations process,” an OMB spokesperson emailed POGO. “The baseless notion that OMB is working to secure funding for a key Presidential objective because of speculation that one company might get a contract to work on it is absurd and illogical. This is really just grasping at straws.”

Nonetheless, Williams, as the top OMB official overseeing defense, is in a position to influence Golden Dome’s own trajectory. Likewise, OMB’s Barbaccia — has influence over AI guidance.

The possibility that the One Big Beautiful Bill could boost Palantir’s and Anduril’s fortunes is far from remote — and certainly no secret. Over the last several months, the business press and investor community have repeatedly flagged the possibility that Golden Dome could be a financial boon to those companies, particularly Palantir. Palantir co-founder and Anduril investor Joe Lonsdale went on Fox Business this May to discuss those companies’ opportunities with Golden Dome. The investment advice firm The Motley Fool posted an analysis that same month entitled, “Prediction: Palantir Stock Will Soar if Trump's One, Big, Beautiful Bill Passes Congress.” That analysis prominently noted that “Palantir is one of a handful of companies that could be in a great position to win major contracts to build the [Golden Dome] system.”

Defense Officials’ Silicon Valley Ties

Palantir and Anduril are linked to other top officials beyond Williams and Barbaccia. And while Golden Dome is not the only program that intersects with these companies and their agencies, its wide-ranging nature means it touches numerous corners of the military and government.

Trump’s nominee for Army under secretary is Mike Obadal. If confirmed by the Senate, he will oversee decisions on what weapons and technology the Army buys, and a senior Army official said earlier this summer that they expect the service to play a major role in Golden Dome. Obadal was a senior director at Anduril from January 2023 to June 2025. In his April 2025 ethics agreement, Obadal stated he will keep his stake in Anduril, valued at between $250,001 and $500,000, after he is confirmed, prompting Senator Warren to call on him to shed his financial interest in the company.

Since then, Obadal decided to forfeit his stake in Anduril upon his recent departure from the company, which he states in a new filing on the Office of Government Ethics website. “When Obadal left Anduril in June 2025, he forfeited his unvested stock and all equity interest in Anduril," a close associate of Obadal's for more than a decade told POGO. “Mike's focus in uniform was on improving the lives of his soldiers. If confirmed, he wants it to be clear that remains his focus as he helps lead the Army’s transformation.”

While Obadal did not respond to a request for comment, he has agreed to recuse himself from “any particular matter” that would have “a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of Anduril Industries.”

Another top defense official who has come under scrutiny is Navy Secretary John Phelan. He has sold millions of dollars in Palantir stock and has certified that he is working to divest from separate investment funds that have stakes in companies such as defense technology firm Epirus. In March, Epirus announced it is collaborating with Palantir to develop a counter-drone technology that could be used in Golden Dome. The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a nonprofit organization that seeks to build public support for missile defense systems, wrote in March that “the U.S. Navy could deploy mobile sensors and interceptors along both coasts to provide the core of the Golden Dome.”

“Even if you have sold your Palantir investments, your relationship with the company could still bias your decision-making toward assisting Palantir in its current push for more DoD contracts,” wrote Warren in a letter to Phelan earlier this year.

In June, Phelan appeared alongside former member of Congress Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who leads Palantir’s national security division, at an AI technology conference in Washington, DC, sponsored by several prominent defense contractors, including Palantir.

“Secretary Phelan’s financial disclosure is a matter of public record, and he has fully divested consistent with the commitments outlined in his ethics agreement,” a Navy spokesperson told POGO. “From a legal and ethics standpoint, there is no conflict, and Secretary Phelan remains in full compliance with all applicable requirements.”

Tapping Tech Talent or a Tech Takeover?

Silicon Valley’s ascendance in the national security realm and in the upper echelons of government has been in the works for years. Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt leveraged his political ties to President Barack Obama to seek influence at the Pentagon, and Palantir’s current head of compliance went from the company to serving as a special assistant to President Joe Biden, then back to Palantir. But the second Trump administration has been particularly welcoming — with key, high-level personnel often coming from these tech companies to fill top roles in much the same way that individuals connected to traditional Pentagon contractors have.

This influx of personnel with corporate tech ties comes after a sustained push to weaken ethics restrictions in order to recruit top talent from industry. A 2019 report by the Defense Business Board — a Pentagon advisory panel whose members often hail from defense contractor heavyweights — stated that, “Forced divestitures [of stock] to enter government service is a significant barrier to recruitment” of tech experts, including executives.

“These disincentives should be eliminated,” the report recommended.

Similarly, a recent book co-authored by Palantir CEO Alex Karp also calls on easing barriers between tech companies and government. “Others might prefer or advocate for a more careful and deliberate division between the domains and concerns of the private and public sectors,” Karp co-wrote with Nicholas W. Zamiska, Palantir’s head of corporate affairs and legal counsel to Karp. “But purity comes at a cost.”

“You do need talented people,” said Ward, the former Air Force lieutenant colonel who has focused on catalyzing innovation inside the Pentagon and elsewhere. “I'm not sure ethical standards are the first barrier that I would try and remove.”

“We want the people doing this work to be honest, unbiased, and service-oriented as opposed to self-oriented,” Ward told POGO. “We do expect a level of independence that the decisions that you’re making are based on the best thing for the country or for the project or for the service, as opposed to the best thing for your own personal bank account.”

Although the ethics law that generally bars taking on official acts that affect one’s personal financial interests has not changed since the 2019 Defense Business Board report, there’s been a blurring of private and public roles. While not completely unprecedented, this blurring has been escalated at least in part by the military’s eagerness to harness technological innovation. Indeed, beyond the bevy of top officials with financial holdings in and employment history with tech firms seeking Pentagon contracts, Palantir’s Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar and other Silicon Valley executives were sworn in earlier this year by the Army as lieutenant colonels as part of its new Executive Innovation Corps.

Financial stakes and employment are not the only connections to these firms. In one of the most notable instances, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reportedly recommended the nomination of Troy Meink as secretary of the Air Force — a service that is seeking a key role in Golden Dome, leading Senators Warren and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) to ask if there “may have been a troubling quid quo pro.”

A major intersection between the Air Force’s mission and SpaceX’s business interests is Golden Dome. And, while Musk’s relationship with Trump has soured, it will be hard to fully exclude SpaceX given its dominance in the launch market, according to industry insiders. Indeed, the Pentagon’s largest contractor, Lockheed Martin, is reportedly in talks with SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril regarding Golden Dome.

“These reports raise concerns about your ability, if confirmed as Secretary, to treat contractors fairly and prioritize the Air Force’s mission over Elon Musk’s business interests,” the senators wrote in a letter to Meink in February prior to his confirmation. Meink denied any conflicts of interest and SpaceX did not respond to a query from POGO.

Alongside these ethics questions, some lawmakers are concerned that vast sums could be wasted on a system that doesn’t work given the technical challenges and lack of detailed plans on Golden Dome being shared with Congress.

Senator Jack Reed (RI), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, has said billions of dollars for Golden Dome could be “essentially a slush fund.” But not just the corporate contractors will profit — top government officials might too.