The AI Gold Rush: How Palantir, Anduril, and Scale AI Are Capturing Federal Spending
AI companies received $11 billion in federal contracts in the last two years. The companies with the most to gain from federal AI spending are also the ones buying congressional stock.
The Numbers
Palantir: The Data War Machine
Palantir Technologies has won $3.2 billion in federal contracts since January 2025, including the Army's TITAN program, the Pentagon's Maven AI system, and a classified intelligence analytics contract whose value has not been disclosed. The company went from a $6B market cap in 2023 to over $90B in 2026. Its two largest investors include In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture arm, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.
Three members of the House Armed Services Committee and two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee disclosed Palantir stock positions between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, adding to pre-existing positions. SlushFund identified at least $22M in total stock positions in Palantir held by members of committees with direct oversight of Palantir contracts.
Anduril: The Defense Tech Unicorn
Anduril Industries, founded by Oculus inventor Palmer Luckey, has won $1.1 billion in federal contracts since 2024, primarily for autonomous drone systems, AI-powered ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) platforms, and the Pentagon's Replicator autonomous weapons initiative. The company is not publicly traded — but Series D and Series E investors include several members of Congress who invested through a special purpose vehicle set up in Delaware.
Two senators and one representative who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee and House AI Caucus invested in Anduril through a 2019 private placement that was not disclosed in their original financial disclosures. Amended filings in 2025 and 2026 disclosed these positions after SlushFund identified them through Delaware corporate records.
The Congressional AI Caucus Stock Problem
The Congressional AI Caucus has 87 members. At least 22 of them hold direct equity positions in AI companies that have received or are positioned to receive federal contracts. The AI Caucus also authored the DEEPFAKE Act and the AI Accountability Act — legislation that would directly affect the valuation of companies its members own. No recusals have been filed.
Scale AI: The Data Labeling Machine
Scale AI has won $440M in federal contracts since 2024, primarily for data labeling services used to train AI models for defense applications. The company is the primary vendor for the DoD's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) data标注 contract. Its CEO, Alexandr Wang, has publicly testified before the Senate AI Caucus.
One senator on the Senate Armed Services Committee disclosed a position in Scale AI in January 2026 — six months after Scale AI won a $180M contract extension from the DoD.
The Policy Connection
The $52 billion CHIPS Act passed in 2022 was supposed to rebuild domestic semiconductor manufacturing. It has also become a de facto AI infrastructure subsidy. The act's advanced packaging and AI chip manufacturing provisions directly benefit three companies whose stock is held by Armed Services Committee members.
The AI Executive Order of January 2025 directed federal agencies to prioritize AI procurement from companies meeting certain domestic content requirements. The specific requirements were written in a way that only Palantir, Anduril, and Scale AI — the three companies with active lobbying operations on the order — could immediately satisfy them.
The Pattern
AI companies need federal contracts to scale. Federal AI policy is written by members of Congress who hold AI stock. The members who write the policies own the companies that benefit from them. This is not a bug in the system. It is the system working as designed — for those who designed it.
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