Senate confirms Michael as DOD chief technology officer

The Senate voted 54-43 today to confirm former Uber executive Emil Michael as under secretary of defense for research and engineering.

The move comes more than a month after the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced Michael’s nomination to the full chamber for confirmation.

Michael -- who most recently held the position of CEO for special purpose acquisition company DPCM Capital -- also served in President Trump’s first administration as special assistant to the defense secretary.

DPCM Capital in 2022 bought a quantum computing company that would later be identified as an approved vendor for Defense Department contracts. The business, D-Wave Systems, received an “awardable” designation in October 2024 from Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace -- a digital repository housed in the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office housing videos of emerging technology solutions that have been pre-vetted for DOD awards.

Michael is one of several top Pentagon officials in the Trump administration with private-sector experience who have highlighted that background as an asset.

“We should be working with private industry more,” Michael told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing in late March. “If you take artificial intelligence, there’s a lot of money being spent, and a lot of research and a lot of dollars. We shouldn’t have to duplicate that in every area of the government. We should be leveraging where they’re spending more and doing ahead and making.”

He also spoke about the potential for private capital to support the defense industrial base in his answers to advance policy questions from lawmakers.

“Venture capital and private equity investment in defense technologies could play an even bigger role in the revitalization of the defense industrial base,” Michael wrote.

He said such investments would be particularly beneficial for “small businesses seeking to gain entry and provide innovative solutions to meet evolving warfighter demands, delivering breakthrough, war-winning capabilities.”