Pete Hegseth’s recent appointments to the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board include two men connected to 1789 Capital, a venture fund where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner. This fund holds lucrative investments in military and space technology companies that benefit from significant federal spending.

Marc Andreessen, a Defense Policy Board appointee, leads Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms. Andreessen Horowitz co-invests alongside 1789 Capital in at least three defense contractors. Fellow appointee Blake Masters also sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital.

Among the companies co-invested in by both firms are Anduril Industries, an autonomous weapons maker; Hadrian, an aerospace and defense manufacturer; and SpaceX, which a 1789 Capital partner has described as the fund’s single largest investment. SpaceX holds the largest share of $13.5 billion in Space Force launch contracts awarded in April 2025 and recently secured a $4.16 billion contract to build missile-tracking satellites for Trump’s Golden Dome defense initiative, plus a $2.29 billion deal for a military data network in orbit.

Hegseth had disbanded several Pentagon advisory panels in April 2025 to bring “fresh thinking” and “bold changes,” before reconstituting the Defense Policy Board on June 29, 2026, with 15 new members chaired by former US trade representative Robert Lighthizer.

Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, noted that such advisory committees often face conflicts of interest, stating, “A lot of the people appointed to them are seeking government business – specifically seeking business with the agency they’re serving.”

Additionally, Hegseth’s investment bank, Farvahar Capital, was paid $80,000 a month as a strategic consultant and received $150,000 plus shares equivalent to 4% of a deal’s value for advising on a 2024 acquisition of firearms lender Credova.

Blake Masters, who resigned as chief operating officer of Thiel Capital in 2022 to run unsuccessfully for the US Senate in Arizona, was a beneficiary of billionaire Peter Thiel’s 2022 election spending, receiving $20 million to support his campaign through the Saving Arizona PAC.

These connections have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest within the Pentagon’s advisory bodies amid ongoing federal defense contracts involving firms linked to the Trump family and their partners.

Sources