Elon Musk has spent many years constructing a universe of corporations that has served as an incubator for up-and-coming engineers and a proving floor for his inside circle.
That universe — an ecosystem of Silicon Valley tech titans, veterans of his corporations like Tesla and SpaceX, and a crop of fresh-faced hackers and software program engineers — has now collided with the U.S. federal authorities.
The dozens of people who work underneath, or advise, Musk and the Trump-ordered Department of Government Efficiency — people who TechCrunch has recognized or confirmed independently — displays greater than the billionaire’s proclivity to gather expertise. They are a real-life illustration of Musk’s web-like attain within the tech trade.
TechCrunch got down to report on or verify the people working as Musk representatives within the U.S. authorities. Importantly, we’ve sought to indicate the connections between them, and the way and once they entered Musk’s orbit.
Along the way in which, TechCrunch has made some new discoveries, together with new particulars about DOGE and its staff and an xAI-powered chatbot on a DOGE-related web site subdomain that’s hosted on a Musk acolyte’s web site.
Since publishing, TechCrunch has realized that DOGE minimize cybersecurity workers at CISA, and confirmed a number of extra Musk-linked DOGE associates, together with a former VC who now works on the Social Security Administration.
How we received right here
TechCrunch interviewed individuals who have labored with Musk and DOGE staffers. We used public and open supply knowledge, corresponding to historic web data and chat logs, to verify elements of our reporting. We additionally relied on providers just like the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to entry archived copies of internet sites which can be now not on-line. Public info, corresponding to courtroom data, funds transactions, different media experiences, and previous TechCrunch reporting had been additionally used.
TechCrunch reached out to all these named for a possibility to remark. For these whose contact info we didn’t have, TechCrunch contacted identified representatives, together with the Trump administration.
When reached for remark, a White House spokesperson offered a press release to TechCrunch. (The spokesperson despatched the e-mail “on background,” however we’re publishing in full as we got no alternative to say no the phrases.)
“DOGE is fulfilling President Trump’s dedication to creating authorities extra accountable, environment friendly, and, most significantly, restoring correct stewardship of the American taxpayer’s hard-earned {dollars}. Those main this mission with Elon Musk are doing so in full compliance with federal legislation, applicable safety clearances, and as staff of the related companies, not as outdoors advisors or entities. The ongoing operations of DOGE could also be seen as disruptive by these entrenched within the federal forms, who resist change. While change could be uncomfortable, it’s essential and aligns with the mandate supported by greater than 77 million American voters,” the assertion learn.
This is a dwelling doc, because the DOGE crew is prone to increase and evolve over the approaching weeks. Scroll right down to study in regards to the people within the DOGE universe, which have been damaged down by kind: Musk’s inside circle; senior figures; employee bees; and aides, a few of whom are advising and recruiting for DOGE.
If extra about DOGE, contact TechCrunch securely. You may also share paperwork by way of SecureDrop.
Inner circle
Elon Musk
Role: DOGE Lead, Unpaid “Special Government Employee”
Gravitas. Obsession. Ambition. Risk-taker.
Elon Musk observers and sycophants have pointed to those traits to elucidate his rise from a bright-eyed immigrant touchdown within the United States to one of many world’s richest and strongest individuals, and now a right-hand to President Donald Trump.
The ignored secret sauce is Musk’s capability to get proficient individuals to signal on to “the mission.”
That there are a number of, overlapping, and evolving missions — saving the planet by sustainable transport and vitality, fixing site visitors, making humanity multiplanetary, or defending public dialog — doesn’t actually matter.
The largest carrot was, and has at all times been, Musk’s “us versus them” framing, in response to 5 sources who had prolonged stints at Tesla and spoke to TechCrunch on situation of anonymity.
In the previous, the “them” is perhaps native regulators, the press, or legacy automakers. Today, the individuals working intently with Musk to finish his subsequent mission by way of the Department of Government Efficiency have a brand new “them” to battle: waste and bureaucrats.
Musk has talked at size about authorities companies that must be “deleted solely.” Meanwhile, Musk’s corporations have benefited from authorities contracts and incentives. His firm SpaceX has been awarded greater than $20 billion in contracts from NASA, the Department of Defense, and different federal companies, in response to knowledge from USASpending.gov.
Musk is an unpaid particular authorities worker, in response to the White House. Per a submitting on February 17, the Trump administration mentioned Musk is a White House worker and a senior advisor to the president. According to the Trump administration’s govt order, DOGE is a brief authorities group whose authorities are set to run out in July 2026.
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Steve Davis
Role: Long-time Musk insider
Steve Davis is a long-time Musk confidant. He started working at SpaceX as one in all its earliest staff in 2003 after incomes a grasp’s diploma in aerospace engineering from Stanford University, in response to the Los Angeles Times.
By 2016, Musk tapped Davis to run what on the time was his latest far-fetched thought: An underground transit play generally known as The Boring Company. On his watch, The Boring Company raised a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and constructed a couple of brief so-called “Tesla tunnels” in Las Vegas. But the corporate has additionally ended up dropping its beforehand introduced plans for tunnels in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, in response to The Wall Street Journal.
Davis has a popularity as a relentless negotiator, and Musk introduced him on board at Twitter to assist with the takeover and subsequent slash-and-burn. Davis and his household reportedly slept in a makeshift bed room on the firm’s headquarters throughout this time. In a 2023 lawsuit towards Twitter filed by former staff, the plaintiffs alleged that Davis mentioned to the impact of, “we don’t need to observe these guidelines,” in response to a request to get permits to put in a toilet for Musk.
Davis has served as a member of the board of advisors of the Atlas Society, a gaggle centered across the philosophy of Ayn Rand, per Bloomberg. Davis is now serving to Musk slash authorities headcount, which Rand as soon as referred to as the “worst half” of the “producers’ burden.”
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Nicole Hollander
Role: X worker
Nicole Hollander garnered public consideration within the aftermath of Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in early 2022.
The George Washington University alum and former worker of actual property developer JGB Smith (per her LinkedIn profile) was a part of the polarizing Twitter transition crew that upended the corporate and slashed its workforce. As a part of that transition, Hollander and Musk ally Steve Davis moved into the corporate’s headquarters with their toddler, in response to a civil lawsuit filed in 2023. The lawsuit was filed by a number of former Twitter staff towards X Corp., the Musk entity that took over. The plaintiffs mentioned within the criticism Hollander was not employed by any of Musk’s corporations at the moment.
Hollander’s relationship with Davis — and her present employment at X — has stored her in Musk’s circle. Her position at DOGE doesn’t have an official title, at the very least one that’s public. However, Wired reported in late January that Hollander has high-level entry to federal companies and an official authorities e mail handle.
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Brian Bjelde
Role: Senior Advisor, Office of Personnel Management
Brian Bjelde is a real Elon Musk veteran, with 21 years at SpaceX, the place he was worker No. 14 and continues to work at present. While he began as an avionics engineer, Bjelde has spent the final decade operating the corporate’s human assets division.
In a 2014 Reddit “ask me something,” Bjelde mentioned that at SpaceX, “We attempt to not restrict our considering besides by the boundaries imposed by physics.”
Several former staff sued SpaceX and Musk in 2024 alleging sexual harassment and a hostile work setting. According to the criticism, Bjelde as soon as starred in a video for the area firm the place a staffer spanked him — an obvious try at tongue-in-cheek humor — and he additionally was concerned within the firings of a number of staff who spoke up in regards to the firm’s tradition in 2022.
Prior to SpaceX, Bjelde spent a 12 months at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory after graduating from the University of Southern California with a grasp’s diploma in astronautical engineering.
At DOGE, Bjelde is reportedly a senior advisor at OPM.
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Amanda Scales
Role: Chief of Staff, Office of Personnel Management
Amanda Scales doesn’t immediately work for DOGE, however is now chief of workers on the Office of Personnel Management, the federal authorities’s primary human assets division, in response to an OPM memo.
Scales used to work on expertise acquisition at Musk’s firm x.AI till January 2025, in response to her LinkedIn profile. She additionally labored in human assets and expertise at San Francisco-based VC agency Human Capital, in addition to at Uber. Scales graduated from University of California, Davis in 2012 with levels in psychology and economics, per her LinkedIn.
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Branden Spikes
Role: Head of IT at X; Former DOGE Operative
Spikes serves as the top of IT at X since February 2025, in response to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he mentioned in his X bio that he had “most just lately” labored for DOGE. Spikes just lately confirmed to journalist Brian Krebs that he labored for DOGE for 2 months in Washington, D.C. “to assist save [the country] from sure chapter.”
Spikes is a longtime Musk insider, touting on his LinkedIn profile that he was the fourth rent at SpaceX and was among the many first staff at PayPal. Spikes’ ex-wife is married to Musk’s cousin, Krebs reported.
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Senior figures
Jehn Balajadia
Role: Long-time Musk assistant
Jehn Balajadia first joined the Musk ecosystem in 2017, in response to her LinkedIn profile, which lists her title as operations coordinator at The Boring Company.
But LinkedIn data don’t at all times mirror precise positions — and their evolution — in Musk’s world. In 2018, Balajadia took over the manager assistant to the workplace of CEO place, a task that included managing all of Musk’s actions and sometimes these of his relations, in response to interactions between a TechCrunch reporter and SpaceX and Musk staff on the time.
Today, Balajadia has a task inside DOGE. According to The New York Times, she is listed within the worker listing of the Education Department.
The guide “Breaking Twitter” claims Balajadia as soon as informed one other Musk official that her job was to “take care” of him, and he or she reportedly usually travels with Musk. When Musk took over Twitter, Balajadia was named chief of workers, and he or she was the one who delivered letters of dismissal to a number of Twitter executives, per Walter Isaacson’s guide on Elon Musk.
Prior to becoming a member of Tesla, Balajadia labored at Red Bull, NBCUniversal, and Walt Disney.
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Riccardo Biasini
Role: Senior Advisor to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management
Riccardo Biasini entered into Musk’s orbit in 2011 when he joined Tesla as an engineer after finishing his grasp’s diploma in automotive engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy the earlier 12 months.
During his 5 years at Tesla, Biasini targeted a lot of his consideration on Autopilot, the corporate’s branded superior driver help system, in response to his personal account outlined in a Medium publish. He led improvement of Autopilot’s traffic-aware cruise management and different driver help options earlier than taking duty for the structure of controls, security, and useful conduct of the electrical propulsion system.
Biasini left Tesla and joined Comma.ai in 2016, the place he developed the automated lateral and longitudinal controls for the startup’s first self-driving automobile system. He later turned VP of high quality and finally was named CEO in 2018 after founder George Hotz stepped down from the management position.
Biasini went again to work for Musk in 2019 as director {of electrical} and software program engineering at The Boring Company.
At DOGE, Biasini is senior advisor to the director of the Office of Personnel Management, in response to a lawsuit filed towards the OPM within the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which supplies his title as listed on an OPM doc entitled “Privacy Impact Assessment for Government-Wide Email System.”
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Amy Gleason
Role: Acting DOGE administrator
Amy Gleason is the performing DOGE administrator, in response to the White House, making Gleason the official albeit ostensible head of the Department of Government Efficiency, even when Elon Musk is essentially calling the photographs.
The White House confirmed Gleason’s place to TechCrunch. Gleason beforehand served on the U.S. Digital Service — now DOGE — between October 2018 and December 2021, in response to her LinkedIn profile, which TechCrunch has seen. Gleason additionally beforehand labored as chief product officer at Russell Street Ventures between December 2021 and November 2024.
Gleason experiences to the White House chief of workers, Susie Wiles, per the manager order establishing DOGE.
President Trump has continued to seek advice from Musk as heading and main DOGE.
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Michael Russo
Role: Chief Information Officer, Social Security Administration
Michael Russo, a former know-how govt, started serving because the chief info officer on the Social Security Administration in early February. As CIO, Russo oversees the company’s IT techniques and data safety.
Soon after his appointment, Russo, who’s aligned with DOGE, reportedly shortly gave entry to a number of DOGE staffers on the company, together with Akash Bobba and Scott Coulter, amongst others, in response to a lawsuit introduced by unions representing staff and an individual aware of personnel issues. Several different DOGE staffers had been listed as Russo’s direct experiences within the division’s workers listing, the particular person acquainted mentioned.
Russo was beforehand the chief know-how officer at ecommerce agency Shift4 and was a senior director at cloud large Oracle, headed by Larry Ellison, an in depth ally of President Trump.
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Christopher Stanley
Role: Unspecified position at White House
Stanley started working for Musk in October 2022, per his LinkedIn profile, when he was employed for the “core transition crew” at Twitter after Musk’s takeover. Stanley could be seen on the time taking this broadly seen selfie at Twitter’s headquarters with different individuals who weren’t fired or stop when Musk took management of Twitter.
Stanley has since taken on an unspecified position on the White House, in response to The New York Times. Stanley himself has hinted at working within the Trump administration on his X account.
On January 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration, Stanley posed subsequent to 2 January 6 convicts, brothers Matthew and Andrew Valentin, who had been pardoned by Trump. Stanley wrote in an X publish that he was “boots on floor to make sure this was executed.” Trump’s Department of Justice liaison Paul Ingrassia wrote on X that the Valentin brothers had been the primary January 6 prisoners to be launched.
Stanley can also be the top of safety engineering at X and the principal safety engineer at SpaceX, in response to his web site. On his LinkedIn, Stanley says he’s additionally the chief info safety officer at X Payments, a fee service that Musk has needed to launch as a part of his “every part app” aspiration for X.
Before coming into Musk’s orbit, Stanley had his personal cybersecurity agency, named Stanley Networks, and labored as a contractor on the state of Kentucky. He additionally labored at Kentucky well being supplier Baptist Health, which incorporates hospitals and different amenities.
TechCrunch discovered an xAI-powered chatbot on a DOGE-related web site subdomain on Stanley’s web site, referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency AI Assistant,” which says it’s “right here to assist authorities personnel such as you establish and remove waste, enhance effectivity, and streamline processes utilizing a primary rules method.”
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Worker bees at DOGE
Akash Bobba
Role: Expert, Office of Personnel Management
Akash Bobba is a DOGE engineer who’s reportedly a scholar on the University of California, Berkeley, in response to Wired. The New Jersey native graduated highschool in 2021, in response to public data seen by TechCrunch. It’s unclear how his experiences introduced him to DOGE. But he has had some interactions with the tech world.
According to a since-deleted podcast with Aman Manazir, Bobba mentioned he beforehand interned at Meta and Palantir. He additionally labored at Bridgewater Associates.
Bobba’s web site as of February 2025 factors to a particular level in a YouTube video, titled, “How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America,” through which Elon Musk says, “I’m not simply MAGA. I’m darkish gothic MAGA.”
Per Wired, Bobba is listed as an “skilled” in inner OPM correspondence, and experiences on to OPM’s chief of workers, Amanda Scales.
According to a lawsuit filed by union staff, Bobba additionally has a presence on the Social Security Administration and labored underneath the company’s chief info officer, Michael Russo, in response to the lawsuit and an individual aware of personnel issues. Bobba was sworn into his publish “over the cellphone, opposite to plain apply,” per the lawsuit, implying Bobba labored for DOGE at the very least partially remotely.
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Edward Coristine
Role: Special Government Employee
Edward Coristine, a former intern at Neuralink and now identified by his notorious LinkedIn profile deal with “bigballs,” is without doubt one of the core members of the DOGE crew and the youngest-known Musk aide at age 19, TechCrunch has confirmed.
Since arriving in Washington, D.C., Coristine has been actively concerned in accessing federal techniques at a number of authorities departments, together with Office of Personnel Management, the SBA, GSA and USAID, the State Department, Homeland Security, and FEMA.
Prior to DOGE, Coristine ran a number of corporations underneath his title from his household dwelling in New York, together with DiamondCDN and Packetware, each which supplied types of DDoS safety.
Coristine additionally used to work for DDoS mitigation firm Path Network till he was fired in June 2022 following an alleged “leaking of proprietary firm info that coincided together with his tenure,” Path CEO Marshal Webb informed TechCrunch in an e mail. Coristine mentioned in a later Discord publish underneath his deal with “Rivage,” seen by TechCrunch and per different information experiences, in response to his firing that he had performed “nothing contractually unsuitable.”
It was round May 2024 that Coristine went to work for Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Coristine can also be a mechanical engineering and physics scholar at Northeastern University, and anticipated to graduate in 2028.
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Scott Coulter
Role: IT Specialist, Social Security Administration
Scott Coulter is an IT specialist working for DOGE on the Social Security Administration, in response to a lawsuit filed by union staff and an individual aware of personnel issues.
Prior to working for DOGE, Coulter headed Cowbird Capital, a New York funding fund based in 2018, which listed belongings of round $171 million as of March 2024, per a regulatory submitting.
Both Coulter and Cowbird had been named in courtroom paperwork in the course of the Twitter v. Musk lawsuit in 2022 throughout Musk’s takeover of Twitter, although it’s not clear why both had been named.
Coulter was listed as an IT specialist within the Social Security Administration’s workers listing as of mid-February, in response to the particular person acquainted. Coulter didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched to his authorities e mail handle.
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Marko Elez
Role: Special Government Employee, U.S. Treasury
Since becoming a member of DOGE, Marko Elez has develop into a central determine in a authorized battle over DOGE’s entry to a number of the federal authorities’s most delicate techniques. Now as a senior Treasury worker, Elez has entry to the U.S. Treasury’s funds techniques chargeable for disbursing round $6 trillion in federal funds to Americans, corresponding to Social Security checks and federal tax refunds.
Named in a lawsuit difficult DOGE’s entry, Elez is a “particular authorities worker” and reportedly had huge knowledge entry privileges to the division’s techniques earlier than that entry was curtailed by a federal courtroom. He works intently with Tom Krause, one other DOGE staffer and senior Treasury worker. Per a February 11 courtroom submitting, Elez is the one DOGE staffer with entry to fee techniques.
Before authorities, the 25-year-old Rutgers University graduate labored at SpaceX, the place he targeted on automobile telemetry, Starship, and satellite tv for pc software program, in response to an archived copy of his web site seen by TechCrunch. Elez later labored on search AI at Musk’s social media firm X, per an archived copy of his web site. Elez doesn’t listing any prior authorities expertise.
On February 6, Elez briefly resigned from his place at DOGE, in response to the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, after The Wall Street Journal surfaced racist posts from Elez’s social media accounts. Elez might return to authorities after Musk posted a ballot on X asking whether or not Elez must be rehired. Elez was reinstated at DOGE, a Washington Post reporter posted on February 18.
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Luke Farritor
Role: Senior Advisor, DOGE
Luke Farritor is listed as a senior advisor in a number of U.S. authorities division worker directories, together with the State Department, USAID, and the Department of Energy. He additionally requested entry to knowledge held by Medicare and Medicaid, in addition to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
Before authorities, Farritor, 23, was a scholar on the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and was well-known for decoding the writings on historical Roman scrolls, for which he received a $700,000 prize. Later, Farritor was among the many 2024 Thiel Fellowship class, an annual award given by the billionaire Peter Thiel. An archived copy of Farritor’s web site says he labored for Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, who he helped to “make investments a big, multistage VC fund and assist run AI Grant.” (Neither Friedman or Gross responded to a request for remark.)
Farritor labored as an intern at Elon Musk’s satellite tv for pc web firm Starlink in mid-2022, then went on to work at SpaceX between May 2022 and July 2023, the place he labored on “a number of mission-critical tasks” main as much as Starship Flights 1 and a couple of, per his web site.
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Gautier ‘Cole’ Killian
Role: DOGE “Volunteer”; Federal Detailee
Gautier “Cole” Killian is described as a DOGE “volunteer” who was designated a “federal detailee” on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in early February. A federal detailee is a federal worker normally seconded from one other authorities company.
Killian was a scholar at McGill University in Canada the place he studied math and laptop science, and was a member of McGill’s AI crew between 2021 and 2022. His private web site was scrubbed from the web in late 2024, in response to his web site’s public DNS data.
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Gavin Kliger
Role: Special Advisor to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management
Gavin Kliger is an alum of University of California, Berkeley, and works at Databricks. Kliger joined the DOGE crew earlier in 2025.
Kliger is listed as particular advisor to the director of the OPM on his LinkedIn profile, per Reuters, although a lot of Kliger’s on-line life, together with his X account, has since been scrubbed from the web, together with the Wayback Machine, which archives copies of webpages in case they later develop into unavailable.
A replica of Kliger’s resume that TechCrunch has seen mentioned he beforehand interned at Twitter in mid-2019.
According to an e mail despatched to USAID workers, Kliger additionally has a USAID e mail handle, and was one of many DOGE staffers who’s now listed within the CFPB’s workers listing, in response to the CFPB’s union.
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Tom Krause
Role: Special Government Employee, U.S. Treasury; CEO, Cloud Software Group
Tom Krause is a particular authorities worker and a senior DOGE staffer within the U.S. Treasury. He concurrently serves because the chief govt of Cloud Software Group, a personal firm that owns a number of tech companies, together with distant entry large Citrix, a as soon as public outfit that went non-public by a collection of offers.
Bloomberg experiences that Krause eradicated jobs at Citrix that workers mentioned had been crucial to the safety of the corporate’s merchandise, in response to a number of staff each named and unnamed for the story. Cloud Software Group informed Bloomberg it inherited weaknesses at Citrix and confronted rising safety threats throughout the trade, and that cybersecurity has improved since its non-public fairness buyout and meets or exceeds all trade requirements.
Before changing into CEO of Cloud Software, Krause, who’s 47, was a former govt at Broadcom; previous to that he ran a consultancy agency.
Since working on the Treasury as one in all Musk’s DOGE front-line staffers, Krause has labored intently with Marko Elez, one other senior Treasury worker.
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Jeremy Lewin
Role: DOGE Staffer
Jeremy Lewin is a DOGE staffer assigned to the General Services Administration, which oversees the federal authorities’s huge procurement and logistics operations, Bloomberg reported. Lewin reportedly failed to achieve entry to a safe GSA space, leading to a superior of his lobbying the CIA for a clearance.
Lewin is a 27-year-old Harvard Law School graduate who just lately labored on the identical legislation agency, Munger, Tolles & Olson, as did U.S. Second Lady Usha Vance, The Handbasket reported.
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Aram Moghaddassi
Role: DOGE Operative
Moghaddassi is a part of a DOGE crew assigned to the U.S. Department of Labor, and is one in all a number of staffers that DOGE plans to put in on the U.S. Treasury, per The New York Times.
Moghaddasi has labored for at the very least three of Musk’s corporations: X and Neuralink, in response to a number of media experiences, and a cached copy of Moghaddassi’s X account in 2023 mentioned he additionally beforehand labored on AI at Tesla.
Moghaddassi seems to be in his twenties. In 2019, he was a sophomore at University of California, Berkeley, the place he studied utilized math and laptop science, the Santa Fe Institute’s web site says.
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Nikhil Rajpal
Role: DOGE Staffer
Nikhil Rajpal studied laptop science and historical past on the University of California, Berkeley, the place he served because the president of the libertarian-leaning scholar political group, Students for Liberty.
According to archived snapshots of his web site, Rajpal labored at Twitter from 2016 till a while earlier than Musk’s acquisition. He might have first entered Musk’s orbit previous to this, reportedly doing work redesigning a Tesla console.
On behalf of DOGE, Rajpal works on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and has a DOGE e mail handle.
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Kyle Schutt
Role: DOGE Technologist
Schutt is a technologist with longstanding hyperlinks to Republican politics and was extra just lately linked to political operations by Elon Musk. Schutt reportedly has entry to techniques at FEMA.
According to his since-deleted GitHub profile, which TechCrunch has seen, Schutt works at an organization referred to as Outburst Data. According to safety researchers, Outburst Data hosts a part of DOGE’s web site and a number of other different Musk-related websites, together with his America PAC political fundraiser. TechCrunch has additionally seen the identical DNS data, which reference a DOGE-named subdomain.
On February 14, 404 Media reported a flaw that it mentioned permits anybody to edit DOGE’s web site.
Schutt additionally serves because the chief know-how officer at Revv, a web based fundraising platform that’s broadly utilized by the Republican Party, in addition to co-founder of Virginia-based software program firm KAMM.
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Ethan Shaotran
Role: DOGE Staffer
Ethan Shaotran, 22, and a California native, is a DOGE staffer and likewise a Harvard University scholar within the class of 2025. Shaotran was first publicly linked to Musk in September 2024, when he was runner-up in a hackathon run by the billionaire’s AI firm xAI.
Shaotran was beforehand the founding father of Energize.ai, although its web site now not hundreds. He additionally developed a number of iPhone apps, together with a Donald Trump-themed operating sport referred to as “Donald Dash.”
Shaotran reportedly has a working GSA e mail handle and requested entry to a decade’s price of GSA knowledge. Shaotran additionally has entry to e mail techniques on the Department of Education and entry to the division’s back-end web site.
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Thomas Shedd
Role: Director of Technology Transformation Services, GSA
Thomas Shedd is a former Tesla engineer who now serves because the director of the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services, or TTS, a unit identified for designing and constructing digital providers for the federal authorities.
Since Shedd took cost of the unit, the GSA fired its 18F division of specialist know-how consultants who labored on the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax-filing system and different authorities tasks.
Several staffers additionally reportedly resigned after Shedd gained entry to elements of Notify.gov, a system that sends mass textual content messages to the general public throughout emergencies, which comprises the non-public info of Americans who registered.
Prior to working in federal authorities, Shedd labored at Tesla for eight years, in response to the GSA, the place he labored on “constructing software program that operates automobile and battery factories.” It’s not clear what prior authorities service Shedd has, if any, however he has mentioned he desires to run TTS like a “startup software program firm,” in response to Wired journal, together with using AI to research authorities contracts.
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Jordan Wick
Role: DOGE Staffer
Jordan Wick is a former Waymo software program engineer who seems to have a DOGE e mail account related to the Executive Office of the President, Wired reported. Wick is among the many crew that was given entry to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau techniques.
Wick can also be the co-founder of Y Combinator startup Intercept, in response to YC’s web site. An archived model of Wick’s web site says that as of 2022, he had “just lately” graduated with a grasp’s diploma in engineering from MIT.
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Christopher Young
Role: DOGE Staffer
Young is a DOGE staffer who was given a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau e mail handle, per Bloomberg.
That handle was reportedly copied in an e mail about 4 different DOGE staff needing to be onboarded and supplied with CFPB constructing entry. Young is a “prime Republican discipline operative” who was employed as Musk’s political advisor in 2024, The New York Times reported. Young has labored in Republican politics since at the very least 2007, in response to his LinkedIn profile.
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Aides and advisors
Marc Andreessen
Role: Unofficial Advisor to DOGE
Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Silicon Valley VC agency Andreesen Horowitz, doesn’t formally work for DOGE however has acted as “a key networker for expertise recruitment” on the company, in response to The Washington Post.
Andreessen has jokingly referred to himself as an “unpaid intern” for DOGE, as properly.
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George Cooper
Role: DOGE Recruiter
Cooper is a Palantir engineer who labored on DOGE’s recruiting efforts in late 2024, in response to Wired. He graduated from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University in 2019 with a bachelor’s diploma in laptop science and enterprise, in response to his LinkedIn profile.
Cooper labored to rent different Palantirians to hitch DOGE as they’re “probably the most distinctive individuals I do know,” he wrote in a message, seen by Wired.
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Vinay Hiremath
Role: DOGE Recruiter
Hiremath, 32, is the co-founder of video recording startup Loom, which was offered to Atlassian in 2023 for $975 million. According to a weblog publish on his web site titled “I’m wealthy and don’t know what to do with my life,” Hiremath labored for DOGE in late 2024 for a few month making a whole bunch of recruiting calls. He wrote that he was added to DOGE-tied Signal teams and “instantly put to work.”
While Hiremath praised DOGE’s work as “extraordinarily vital,” Hiremath mentioned he stop as he wanted to give attention to himself, calling off plans to maneuver to Washington, D.C. and going to Hawaii as a substitute.
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Anthony Jancso
Role: DOGE Recruiter
Jancso is a former Palantir software program engineer who additionally labored on DOGE’s recruitment efforts late in 2024, in response to Wired. In 2023, Jancso co-founded Accelerate SF, an initiative that faucets engineers to resolve town’s issues with AI. Jancso’s precise age isn’t public, however he graduated from University College London in 2021 with a bachelor’s diploma in economics in response to his LinkedIn profile, seen by TechCrunch. Jancso was himself recruited to DOGE by Boring Company president Steve Davis.
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Michael Kratsios
Role: DOGE Recruiter
Kratsios helped lead efforts to workers DOGE in late 2024, conducting interviews of potential workers, Bloomberg reported. Kratsios was beforehand managing director of Scale AI and the chief know-how officer of the United States underneath President Trump’s first time period. He was additionally a principal at Thiel Capital, a VC agency based by Peter Thiel, from 2014 to 2017, in response to his LinkedIn.
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Katie Miller
Role: DOGE Advisor & Spokesperson
Katie Miller is a Trump-appointed advisor to DOGE, and has served as its spokesperson. Miller served within the first Trump administration and is the partner of Trump’s deputy chief of workers, Stephen Miller. Miller additionally serves on a presidential advisory board associated to intelligence issues.
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This was initially printed February 18, 2025, and will likely be up to date repeatedly.
