More Big Tech executives just became Army officers. The conflict-of-interest question is getting louder.

TL;DRThree more tech executives, including Cloudflare’s CTO, have joined the US Army’s Detachment 201 as lieutenant colonels. The programme now includes seven Silicon Valley leaders advising the Pentagon on AI and modernisation, raising conflict-of-interest concerns as their companies hold billions in defence contracts.

The US Army has commissioned three more technology executives into Detachment 201, the reserve unit that gives Silicon Valley leaders the rank of lieutenant colonel and a direct advisory line to senior military officials. Dane Knecht, chief technology officer of Cloudflare, Sam Pullara, CTO and managing director of Sutter Hill Ventures, and Serkan Piantino, a former Reddit executive and co-founder of Facebook AI Research, were sworn in on 10 June at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia.

They join a first cohort commissioned in June 2025 that included Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, former OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil, and Thinking Machines Lab adviser Bob McGrew.

Detachment 201, officially branded the Executive Innovation Corps, is designed to “bridge the gap between private-sector innovation and military modernisation,” according to the Army. Members serve as part-time reservists, completing a minimum of 112 hours of service annually, and can work remotely.

Their primary role is to advise senior military leaders on AI, cybersecurity, machine learning, and data-driven capabilities. The Army says they have participated in “collaborative advisory and brainstorming sessions” focused on munitions supply-chain analysis, industrial-base investment, and strategies for autonomous systems and counter-drone technologies.

The programme has drawn criticism since its inception. All seven members entered the Army as lieutenant colonels, a rank that typically takes career officers more than a decade to reach, and their companies hold active or potential defence contracts.

Palantir’s Sankar, whose company won an $823 million Army contract for intelligence analytics and was recently designated the Pentagon’s primary AI platform, reportedly holds stock and options worth more than $200 million. Meta’s Bosworth joined while his company was actively opening its Llama AI models to military use for the first time.

The Army says members are governed by a “multi-layered ethics framework,” including mandatory financial disclosures, annual ethics training, and legal review of each assignment. “Recusal from any matter affecting the financial interests of members of Detachment 201 is mandatory,” spokesperson Lt. Col. Orlan