Silicon Valley Has Bought Into Trump’s ‘Tech Force’ — Even as Details Remain TBD

Details are scarce, and hiring is incomplete for the Trump administration’s new Tech Force initiative, but Silicon Valley is already lining up behind what the White House is billing as an AI-driven jobs program.

Over 20 companies — from consumer tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple, to computing infrastructure companies like Oracle and Nvidia, to primarily government contractors like Palantir — are listed as initial partners on the program’s website.

The companies’ willingness to take part in a still-nascent initiative is a sign of just how far tech companies are willing to go to woo President Donald Trump as they seek his backing for controversial projects like new data centers and setting limits on AI regulation.

“What’s fascinating about that is the understanding that the government — at least in this administration — is very transactional. It’s a ‘tit for tat, you rub my back, I’ll rub your back’ in some sort of future issue. And for the tech companies, it’s relatively low cost,” Will Rinehart, a senior fellow and AI policy researcher at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told NOTUS.

Much of the Tech Force program, which seeks to hire roughly 1,000 tech workers as part of a private-public partnership to “build the next generation of government technology,” appears to still be in the works.

Michael Kratsios, the chief White House technology adviser, said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday that the administration had received over 35,000 applications for the program so far.

“There were essentially calls out to the tech companies saying, ‘Look, it is a national imperative to have the very best technologists in government working on the problems that will impact American citizens,’ and because of the great leadership of the president, we were able to get so many companies to step up and say ‘yes,’” Kratsios said.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is “actively engaging private sector partners” on a “one-on-one basis,” a spokesperson told NOTUS, suggesting that the program would evolve. The spokesperson referred specific questions about the program to the individual companies involved.

Those companies were reluctant to offer anything more than their general interest in working with the government.

“As a founding member of the U.S. Tech Force, ServiceNow supports efforts to accelerate innovation and strengthen America’s technology leadership. We are in early days and look forward to providing further detail as our plans take shape,” a spokesperson for the software company told NOTUS via email.

Oracle, Nvidia and Microsoft declined to comment on the record to NOTUS about their involvement with the new program.

Tech Force is only the most recent iteration of the ongoing, mutually beneficial alliance between tech companies and the Trump administration — an alliance that’s the result of hard work from company executives, who have directly lobbied the president and donated to his pet projects like the new White House ballroom.

The Office of Personnel Management said the companies will offer their employees for stints at the federal government with Tech Force, and job postings tout the initiative’s “exposure to America’s top technology CEOs,” possibly through fireside chats, networking events and training.

Most companies that spoke with NOTUS declined to provide specifics as to how they would recruit or nominate employees for a Tech Force fellowship. Matthew Rose, head of government affairs at the data platform company Snowflake, told NOTUS that while the company “had some folks in mind” for good Tech Force exchange candidates, they didn’t want to “just pick” and would instead allow Snowflake employees to participate “if they would like.”

“This comes from our executive team and our CEO directly. We see it really as our patriotic imperative to help the nation solve some of the most technical challenges in the government,” Rose said.

Margaret York, head of talent at Palantir, said in an email to NOTUS that participation in Tech Force was “entirely voluntary” for Palantir employees.

“Any Palantir employee may express interest; we encourage and support their service to this valuable initiative,” York wrote.

In addition to providing their own employees, partner companies will support Tech Force by training and mentoring its participants and committing to consider Tech Force alumni for employment after their time in the program is up. Several companies confirmed to NOTUS that they would do so, despite the fact that the program has yet to hire its first cohort.

“We’re enthusiastic about the experience Tech Force alumni will gain and are looking forward to considering them for roles at Palantir in the future,” York said.

Almost a month since the program launched, it’s unclear whether chief executives like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, whose company xAI is also a partner, will block out their calendars to work with Tech Force recruits.

A few companies, including defense contractors Anduril and Palantir, said that their leadership teams would be involved in Tech Force events.

OPM’s spokesperson told NOTUS that more details might be forthcoming soon: “Stay tuned!”

Rinehart said that this partnership structure is not totally unprecedented for the federal government since programs like TechCongress partner technologists from the private sector with Congressional offices.

But Tech Force points to the challenges that the administration has faced when trying to integrate AI within the federal government.

“They’re trying to hire certain kinds of technologies to fill roles, because very clearly, they don’t have individuals to fill those roles,” Rinehart said. “It’s a recognition that they’re going to need to increase their technology state capacity to actually enact policy change.”

The Trump administration laid off many of its technical personnel last year as part of Musk’s DOGE efforts.

An OPM memo on the program says that, in addition to being open to anyone who applies and can prove their technical prowess, regardless of education level, Tech Force will also consist of “experienced technical managers sourced from the private sector who will lead and mentor the larger team of earlier career technologists.”

Little is known about the specifics of what projects Tech Force participants might contribute to during their tenure in the federal government.

While the program website says Tech Force is a nonpolitical program, a questionnaire linked to by a Tech Force job posting asks OPM-required questions like “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”

Later, the questionnaire asks applicants to attest that they wrote their responses without the help of AI.