Elon Musk is not the only tech billionaire who has power over the federal agencies that regulate his business. Since Donald Trump took office, more than 30 employees, allies and investors, including Musk, Peter Thiel, Mark Andreesen and Palmer Lucky, have played roles in federal agencies, directly supporting billions of contracts.
According to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, companies owned, founded or invested by Musk, Thiel, Andreessen and Luckey have collected federal contracts totaling over $6 billion since Trump took office in January. And they are actively pursuing billions.
These appointments are in the departments that oversee, regulate and award businesses to four male companies, raising many red flags. They may violate the Interest Dispute Act or government ethical regulations, both prohibiting federal government employees from using public office for their private interests.
And while it's not uncommon to establish trustworthy allies in the role of government, Musk's network has moved at an unprecedented speed and scale. TechCrunch previously reported on all the people in Musk's universe who joined him in Doge. There he shut down federal agencies in the sector that regulated his business, cutting the workforce significantly. Whether they are founders or investors, at least 19 people with Silicon Valley connections have joined Doge.
“The second Trump administration is actually the first administration in recent years that has not imposed any kind of additional ethical safeguards on high-level appointees,” Daniel Weiner, director of election and government programs at the Brennan Center, told TechCrunch. He said Trump fired 17 inspectors who had served as observers for fraud and abuse, with the director of the Government Ethics Bureau and 17 inspectors.
“It certainly potentially increases the risk that there are people who are working on issues that at least indirectly affect their bottom line,” Weiner said. “But this is a long-term issue for the government and not inherent in this administration.”
Innovation and accountability
Peter Thiel speaks at Bitcoin 2022 Conference.image Credit: Marco Bello/Getty Images
Some may argue that it makes sense for Musk, Tiel, Andreesen and Lucky employees and peers to join the government agency. Their insiders are talented individuals behind the cutting edge technology that government truly needs, and they understand how to innovate quickly and compete globally.
More serious questions arise when policies are created or destroyed to protect market control, or regulations that serve the public interest go the way to promote business interests, whereby favorable favors threaten competition.
For example, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency has recently retreated from pursuing rules restricting data brokers despite growing privacy concerns. This is to benefit businesses involved in AI, surveillance and data analytics. Another example is the firing of Doge officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which investigates the safety of autonomous vehicles, including several probes to Tesla.
“One of the critical structural challenges that the US government has right now is that we have a system in which very wealthy interests have a great deal of power to shape our elections and then turn and shape government policies,” Weiner said.
Another Silicon Valley appointee, Mike Kratzos (formerly Tiel employee), is now the main technological policy of the US government. In his April speech, he spoke about bad regulations that “put pressure on our innovators,” especially abandoning people who are innovating with AI.
“Many people in Silicon Valley tend to think that anything they worked in Silicon Valley works for the management of the US government,” Weiner said. “And as we see now, the danger is that a lot of people will get hurt because of the assumptions they make.”
“The fact that the startup was successful after the other five failed people doesn't necessarily mean that they know how to run the Social Security Agency,” he continued.
Internal networks and external rewards
Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz.Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
All businesses between Musk, Thiel, Andreessen and Luckey are related. Musk's SpaceX is backed by the Thiel's Founders Fund and Andreessen's A16Z (which also invested in X and Xai). Both of these VCs supported Andrill, Lucky's defense startup.
The overlapping network of founders, funders, and insiders extends to several federal agencies. And in many cases, these agencies have led billions in federal contracts and are back to those companies.
The journal found people across Washington in the Mask network, including Tesla, X and SpaceX, are found in more than a dozen agencies from the President and the Department of Human Resources and Management's Enforcement Bureau, ranging from the Department of Transport and the Department of Energy.
SpaceX employees are also at agents who can provide new business to the company. For example, the Journal reports that SpaceX senior engineer Theodore Amaraska received an ethics exemption in February, allowing him to work temporarily with the Federal Aviation Administration while working for a rocket company. The FAA has not yet signed a contract with SpaceX, but Malaska said at X Agency has upgraded Alaska's weather observation system using Starlink.
SpaceX is also the main commercial provider of NASA's crew and cargo. National Security Concerns – Like the reported drug use of secret backdoors and masks for China's investment, SpaceX in April won $5.9 billion of a $13.7 billion multi-year contract from the US Space Force and launched the Pentagon Mission. DOD, a current StarLink customer, plans to purchase SpaceX's Starshield satellite, a militarized version of the Internet satellite.
Employees at the Thiel Supported Company are in the roles of the State Department, Management Budget, Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Agency, in accordance with the Wall Street Journal. Thiel's Palantir has been awarded nearly $376 million by the Department of Health and Human Services since 2020. In 2024, the company was awarded a Pentagon contract of at least $1.2 billion in 2024, with an additional $100 million deal.
Anduril, Palantir and SpaceX recently submitted billions of dollar proposals for Trump's “Golden Dome” missile defense program. Recently, Anduril and Microsoft have taken over a 2021 contract worth up to $22 billion to develop AR headsets, according to the journal.
Andrill's executive Michael Obadal has been nominated for the top role in the Department of Defense. In his ethics disclosure, he said he would retain his Andrill stock if appointed.
TechCrunch reached out to Anduril, Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), Palantir and SpaceX for comment.
“This kind of concentration of private wealth and political power is ultimately extremely dangerous to our economy,” Weiner said. “Instead of government decisions aimed at promoting competition and promoting economic growth, you take the real risk that government decisions are structured around protecting certain businesses and certain industries from full economic competition.”