{"id":91344,"date":"2026-02-16T17:23:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T20:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/892852950"},"modified":"2026-02-16T17:23:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T20:23:48","slug":"spacex-to-compete-in-pentagon-contest-for-autonomous-drone-tech-bloomberg-news-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/spacex-to-compete-in-pentagon-contest-for-autonomous-drone-tech-bloomberg-news-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX to compete in Pentagon contest for autonomous drone tech, Bloomberg News reports"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Feb 16 : Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its wholly-owned subsidiary xAI are competing in a secret new Pentagon contest to produce voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarming technology, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

SpaceX, xAI and the Pentagon’s defense innovation unit did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.<\/p>\n

Texas-based SpaceX recently acquired xAI in a deal that combined Musk’s major space and defense contractor with the billionaire entrepreneur’s artificial intelligence startup. It occurred ahead of SpaceX’s planned initial public offering this year.<\/p>\n

Musk’s companies are reportedly among a select few chosen to participate in the $100 million prize challenge initiated in January, according to the Bloomberg report.<\/p>\n

The six-month competition aims to produce advanced swarming technology that can translate voice commands into digital instructions and run multiple drones, the report said.<\/p>\n

Musk was among a group of AI and robotics researchers who wrote an open letter in 2015 that advocated a global ban on “offensive autonomous weapons,” arguing against making “new tools for killing people.”<\/p>\n

The U.S. Defense Secretary last year outlined a new strategy to accelerate drone development and deployment by aiming to cut bureaucracy and boost domestic drone manufacturing.<\/p>\n

The U.S. also has been seeking safe and cost-effective ways to neutralize drones, particularly around airports and large sporting events – a concern that has become more urgent ahead of the FIFA World Cup and America250 anniversary celebrations this summer.<\/p>\n

OpenAI, Alphabet’s Google, Anthropic and xAI last year won contracts that are worth up to $200 million each and aimed at scaling up adoption of advanced AI capabilities in the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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… voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarming technology<\/span>, Bloomberg News reported on Monday … aims to produce advanced swarming technology<\/span> that can translate voice commands …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}