Secretary Of War Pete Hegseth Visits Elon Musk-Led SpaceX's Starbase - Touts Grok Integration At Pentagon: 'There Is Nothing Like This...'

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited Elon Musk-led commercial spaceflight company SpaceX's headquarters in Starbase, Texas, hailing the company's operations.

Pete Hegseth At Starbase

Hegseth visited the Starbase facility on Monday as part of the "Arsenal of Freedom" tour, where he hailed the technological developments made by SpaceX. "There is nothing like this in the world," Hegseth said during his appearance, adding that SpaceX's efforts were a "testament to the strength of American ingenuity."

The Secretary of War also highlighted the integration of Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI's AI model Grok into the Pentagon's operations, scheduled to be deployed this month. "Very soon we will have the world's leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department," Hegseth said.

He also shared that the Pentagon would be pushing towards more AI-enabled applications in military operations. "We will become an ‘AI-first’ warfighting force across all domains,” Hegseth said. He then hailed the appointment of Emil Michael as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the War Department.

Hegseth shared that the War Department's "peacetime science fair" was over and that the administration, under President Donald Trump, was going to maintain the country's "global AI dominance."

SpaceX Bags $739 Million Contract

The news comes as SpaceX was granted a defense contract worth $739 million with the U.S. Space Force. The contracts would aid in strengthening the U.S. military's missile warning and tracking capabilities. The latest contract is one of many between the Musk-backed company and Washington.

The company was also reportedly a frontrunner in securing contracts with the Pentagon to work on Trump's Golden Dome missile defense system alongside Peter Thiel-backed Palantir Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:PLTR). Most recently, industry experts opined that the AI software company was involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

SpaceX And NASA

SpaceX could also be an integral part of the U.S.'s space program, with Musk's close ally and former Shift4 Payments Inc. (NASDAQ:FOUR) CEO Jared Isaacman appointed as Trump's NASA Administrator.

Isaacman recently reaffirmed NASA's goal to return humanity to the moon with the Artemis 3 mission, as well as outlined the goal to reach Mars. Isaacman also hailed the partnership with companies such as SpaceX and Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin as key to achieving interplanetary goals.

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