Google in talks with Pentagon to join Trump's Golden Dome defence programme

By Sana Pashankar and Kiel Porter

 

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is in talks with the US Defence Department to work on a new data security effort underpinning the $185 billion Golden Dome missile defence program, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The Pentagon is standing up a new industry group that aims to secure the data that feeds into military software being built for Golden Dome, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter isn’t public.

 

The group is likely to involve multiple companies working to ensure data that flows into the new command-and-control software is resilient to attacks, such as attempts to cut access to landlines, cell towers and other critical communications infrastructure, the people said.

 

 

The talks have focused on Google’s data storage, networking and cybersecurity capabilities, one of the people said. Conversations are still early and plans could change, they said. Aalyria Technologies Inc., a networking company spun out from Google, is involved in the consortium, they added.

 

A Pentagon official said that while the office may explore preliminary concepts, no final decision has been made regarding a new consortium or industry participants. Google and Aalyria declined to comment.

 

Golden Dome is President Donald Trump’s marquee defence program to build a layer of defence systems from ground to space that will protect the US from foreign attack.

 

The Golden Dome’s command-and-control layer, which is being developed by a separate group including Anduril, Palantir and SpaceX, is intended to control and connect weapons systems, radars, and other previously siloed systems across the US military.

 

The effort would mark Google’s first publicly known involvement in the Golden Dome program and another sign of how the search engine giant is continuing to lean into national security and defence work.

 

Both the Pentagon’s separate Golden Dome initiatives to pioneer space-based missile interceptors and its command-and-control consortium rely on numerous companies from startups to established primes, unlike past defence programs that have been more typically anchored by a single, large contractor.

 

Google has had a complicated history with defence work. In 2018, thousands of Google employees protested the company’s involvement in a military AI program called Project Maven, citing concerns that the commercial technology would be supporting warfare. Google ultimately didn’t renew the contract.

 

In the years since, however, the company has created a dedicated public sector business and signed deals with the military for AI and cloud capabilities.

 

In April, Google signed an agreement to use its AI models for classified work at the Pentagon, an about-face from its previous stance amid another, albeit smaller, backlash from employees.