Elon Musk to advise Pentagon on warfare research amid personal breakup

Elon Musk is set to take on a new advisory role for the Pentagon as part of ‘Project Meridian’, a research initiative focused on the future of warfare. Musk will lead the project alongside Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Anduril Industries, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The Pentagon’s Secretary of Defense has directed that the project submit its research findings within 120 days.

Separately, Shivon Zilis, a high-ranking executive at Neuralink and mother of four of Musk’s children, announced their breakup on social media. Zilis stated the split happened “without warning” within a single week, despite recent affectionate exchanges between the two. She expressed a desire to remain friends and co-parent their four children, who were born between 2021 and 2025.

Musk’s companies continue to hold significant defense contracts; SpaceX provides satellite networks for the ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system, and xAI has reached an agreement to allow the military to use its Grok chatbot on classified systems.