By Aram Roston
Publication Date: 2026-04-09 19:35:00
A senior U.S. Defense Department official overseeing the agency’s artificial intelligence efforts made a profit of up to $24 million earlier this year selling a private investment he held in Elon Musk’s AI company, according to government ethics filings released this month. The value of his share was a maximum of one million dollars when he joined the department.
Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and technology under the Trump administration, is overseeing negotiations with AI companies and pushing the Defense Department to quickly increase widespread use of AI.
Michael stated in March 2025 that he held a position in xAI worth between $500,000 and $1 million.
He sold those shares on Jan. 9 for between $5 million and $25 million, according to disclosures filed with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). He reported that he owned the xAI shares through a company called KQ Partners. (Government financial disclosure reports are intended to reveal a number of…
