There you have it! "Incompetent" Emil Michael just posted on X: "Anthropic is still a designated …
September 3, 2026 · 0 likes · 0 comments
Defense
There you have it! "Incompetent" Emil Michael just posted on X: "Anthropic is still a designated Supply Chain Risk at @DeptofWar and for the Defense Industrial Base. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
First, it cracks me up that he thinks he is President Trump, signing posts like him, maybe he thinks that will make him look smarter, it doesn't.
Second, turns out he was also cashing in on this.
Emil Michael sold his xAI stake in January for up to $25 million — a 400% to 4,800% gain on a position he'd valued months earlier at under a million. He sold Perplexity stock in June for up to another $25 million. He sold Brex in April for at least $5 million, a 473% gain. Tens of millions, off AI companies, while he sets the rules for AI in the building.
The Pentagon picks Grok as an approved vendor in July. Ethics orders him to divest in December. Four days after that order, the Department announces a NEW xAI deal for GenAI.mil. He waits two more weeks, then sells into all of it.
Here is what makes my blood boil.
When I became the first US Chief Software Officer for the Air Force and Space Force, I was ordered to divest. Amazon. Microsoft. My tech holdings. Gone. I took real HUGE losses to work into that building clean, because that is the entire point of the rule, so you can never be accused of steering a dollar toward your own portfolio.
He didn't sell before. He held, he shaped the policies, got rid of Anthropic, and created the deals that pumped the value, and then he cashed out at the top.
That is not a gray area. That is the exact conflict of interest divestiture exists to prevent. A former Bush ethics lawyer said it plainly: no decent ethics lawyer lets a defense official hold AI stock while making decisions that touch those companies.
No investigation. No charges. Not even a headline most places.
So somebody explain it to me. I lost money to follow the rule. He made a fortune ignoring it. How is that allowed?
Full breakdown on UnbiasedHeadlines: https://lnkd.in/ewdGuWqq
Egregious.
First, it cracks me up that he thinks he is President Trump, signing posts like him, maybe he thinks that will make him look smarter, it doesn't.
Second, turns out he was also cashing in on this.
Emil Michael sold his xAI stake in January for up to $25 million — a 400% to 4,800% gain on a position he'd valued months earlier at under a million. He sold Perplexity stock in June for up to another $25 million. He sold Brex in April for at least $5 million, a 473% gain. Tens of millions, off AI companies, while he sets the rules for AI in the building.
The Pentagon picks Grok as an approved vendor in July. Ethics orders him to divest in December. Four days after that order, the Department announces a NEW xAI deal for GenAI.mil. He waits two more weeks, then sells into all of it.
Here is what makes my blood boil.
When I became the first US Chief Software Officer for the Air Force and Space Force, I was ordered to divest. Amazon. Microsoft. My tech holdings. Gone. I took real HUGE losses to work into that building clean, because that is the entire point of the rule, so you can never be accused of steering a dollar toward your own portfolio.
He didn't sell before. He held, he shaped the policies, got rid of Anthropic, and created the deals that pumped the value, and then he cashed out at the top.
That is not a gray area. That is the exact conflict of interest divestiture exists to prevent. A former Bush ethics lawyer said it plainly: no decent ethics lawyer lets a defense official hold AI stock while making decisions that touch those companies.
No investigation. No charges. Not even a headline most places.
So somebody explain it to me. I lost money to follow the rule. He made a fortune ignoring it. How is that allowed?
Full breakdown on UnbiasedHeadlines: https://lnkd.in/ewdGuWqq
Egregious.