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Elon Musk’s SpaceX, along with its partners Palantir and Anduril, have emerged as frontrunners in the competition to secure a key part of President Donald Trump’s ambitious “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The three companies – part of a growing sector of technology startups focused on defense innovation—have teamed up in a bid to build critical components of the missile defense system, which aims to detect and neutralize missile threats to the United States, the report said.
Sources told Reuters that the proposal involves building and launching a fleet of 400 to over 1,000 satellites to detect missile launches and track their movement. A separate fleet of 200 attack satellites, equipped with missiles or lasers, would reportedly be used to neutralize incoming threats.
Through his executive order on January 27, Trump had suggested that a missile attack is the “most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”
Musk’s SpaceX, Palantir – a software maker and Anduril – a drone manufacturer, are all led by entrepreneurs known to be vocal supporters of President Trump. Musk, in particular, has reportedly contributed over a quarter of a billion dollars to support Trump’s political campaigns and serves as a special adviser to the president on government spending.
According to the report, the decision-making process for the Golden Dome project is still in its early stages and the three companies recently met with senior officials from the Trump administration and the Pentagon to present their plans for the missile defense system.
However, the Pentagon, the report said, declined to comment on the details of the discussions, saying it would deliver “options to the President for his decision in line with the executive order and in alignment with White House guidance and timelines.”
One source familiar with the discussions described the process to Reuters as “a departure from the usual acquisition process,” noting that there is an attitude within the national security community of being “sensitive and deferential” to Musk due to his role within the government.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has suggested structuring its involvement in the Golden Dome as a “subscription service,” where the U.S. government would pay for access to the technology, rather than owning the system outright, the report said.
This model could allow the system to be deployed more quickly, potentially bypassing some Pentagon procurement protocols, sources further told Reuters, while also warning that such an approach could lock the government into a subscription model, limiting control over the system’s ongoing development and pricing.
