The Trump administration is changing a number of the nation’s high tech officers with Silicon Valley expertise tied to Elon Musk and corporations related to Peter Thiel. This might make it simpler for Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) engineers to achieve entry to delicate authorities methods, sources and specialists say.
Over the previous couple of weeks, a number of Musk-aligned tech leaders have been put in because the chief info officers, or CIOs, of the Workplace of Administration and Funds (OMB), the Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM), and the Division of Vitality (DOE). CIOs handle an company’s info know-how and oversee entry to delicate databases and methods, together with labeled ones.
“Federal company CIOs have authority over all company asset administration, which incorporates software program used to watch civil servant laptops and telephones,” a former Biden official with firsthand data of a CIO’s capabilities tells WIRED. “CIO retailers handle and management IT entry to all company databases and methods, and have oversight over all of the IT contracts per FITARA [the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act]. They’ve numerous IT price range and headcount Musk would possibly need to take over. In companies, CIOs are functionally as highly effective as OIGs [the Office of Inspectors General].”
To this point, these new CIOs have all been appointed. At most companies, nonetheless, the place is crammed by profession civil servants. Final week, OPM issued a brand new memo that might reclassify these nonpartisan roles, basically permitting the Trump administration to switch CIOs at will with the intention to higher perform its agenda. The appointments made to this point might function an indicator of who will take over IT departments all through the federal government as soon as the order goes into impact.
Late final month, Gregory Barbaccia was employed because the federal chief info officer, a place inside OMB, which oversees the efficiency of all federal companies and administers the price range. Barbaccia’s LinkedIn reveals that he’s spent most of his profession in tech, together with a 10-year stint at Palantir. When Barbaccia left Palantir in 2020, his function was head of intelligence and investigations. Palantir CEO Alex Karp lately referenced the “disruption” of DOGE’s cost-cutting initiatives and mentioned, “no matter is nice for America will likely be good for Individuals and excellent for Palantir.” The corporate has made billions in authorities contracts. Palantir shares hit an all-time excessive final week after a greater than anticipated quarterly earnings report. Final week, Palantir introduced plans to combine Musk’s massive language mannequin Grok with Palantir’s AI platform.
Ryan Riedel was put in because the chief info officer of the DOE final week, in line with studies from E&E Information. On the DOE particularly, the CIO oversees all know-how operations in addition to cybersecurity initiatives, along with parts of the Nationwide Nuclear Safety Administration, which oversees the US’s nuclear weapons stockpiles. Riedel reportedly labored as a “lead community safety engineer” at Musk’s rocket firm SpaceX.
Whereas not each new CIO has as direct ties to Musk or Palantir, they do all have deep Silicon Valley connections. Greg Hogan is now the CIO of OPM, or what is actually the US authorities’s HR division. Hogan has been alleged to be a particular authorities worker and never a full-time OPM worker, in line with a latest lawsuit. Hogan beforehand labored at Comma.AI, an organization that builds automated driving software program. Musk allegedly floated a job provide to Comma.AI’s former CEO George Hotz in 2015 to work on self-driving tech, however the deal reportedly soured after Hotz claimed his self-driving tech was superior to Tesla’s.
