Anthropic · Pentagon · xAI · Donald Trump · Elon Musk · Decrypt
Top Pentagon AI Official Sold Millions in Perplexity Stock, Disclosures Show
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Emil Michael, the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and the department's chief technology officer, sold his stake in Perplexity AI in June for between $5 million and $25 million, according to financial disclosures reviewed by The Guardian.
Key facts
- He also held a stake in Elon Musk's xAI, reported at $500,000 to $1 million when he entered government, and sold it on January 9 for between $5 million and $25 million—a gain of up to 4,800%
- Before joining government, Michael took a personal loan from Perplexity of between $250,000 and $500,000 at 4.57% interest, per his 2025 disclosures
- Emil Michael, the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and the department's chief technology officer, sold his stake in Perplexity AI in June for between $5 million
- Perplexity, meanwhile, is in talks with Nvidia for a new funding round that would value the company above $30 billion, more than 50% higher than the $20 billion valuation it held in September 2025
Summary
It's his third AI-adjacent stock exit this year, following a $24 million gain on xAI in January and at least $5 million from a stake in Brex in April. Michael has been the public face of the Pentagon's fight to blacklist Anthropic, a direct Perplexity and xAI rival, though a federal judge vacated that designation last week. Michael previously sat on Perplexity's advisory board, stepping down at the start of 2025 before joining the Donald Trump administration that May.