The Trump administration is changing a number of the nation’s prime 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 realize entry to delicate authorities techniques, sources and specialists say.
Over the previous few 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 expertise and oversee entry to delicate databases and techniques, together with categorised 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 outlets handle and management IT entry to all company databases and techniques, and have oversight over all of the IT contracts per FITARA [the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act]. They’ve a number of IT finances and headcount Musk may wish to take over. In companies, CIOs are functionally as highly effective as OIGs [the Office of Inspectors General].”
Thus far, 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 may reclassify these nonpartisan roles, basically permitting the Trump administration to exchange CIOs at will with a purpose 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 finances. 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 just lately referenced the “disruption” of DOGE’s cost-cutting initiatives and stated, “no matter is sweet for America will probably be good for People 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, based on stories from E&E Information. On the DOE particularly, the CIO oversees all expertise operations in addition to cybersecurity initiatives, along with components 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, based on a current lawsuit. Hogan beforehand labored at Comma.AI, an organization that builds automated driving software program. Musk allegedly floated a job supply 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.
