As the Pentagon moves to sideline a leading artificial intelligence firm over its refusal to support mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, one of the top officials driving the decision has a multimillion-dollar stake in one of its direct competitors, according to financial disclosures reviewed by the Lever.

This investment, among others, means a Pentagon decisionmaker may have a financial incentive to steer lucrative government contracts toward certain AI firms, even as concerns mount about the risks of artificial intelligence in warfare.

Emil Michael, the Trump administration’s undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, has emerged as a central figure in the decision to blacklist the AI company Anthropic for refusing to allow its algorithms to be used for mass surveillance and certain military objectives.