Musk and DOGE Might Soon Have Access to the Most Lucrative Defense-Contract Database of All
Ex-officials warn Zeteo that the USXports database is a means for Musk to undercut competitors to SpaceX in the defense sector.
Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is conducting a smash-and-grab throughout the federal government. Among its seizures are software critical to the US Treasury's payment systems, data on financial service providers regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Board, and, perhaps soon, highly revealing information about taxpayers housed within the Internal Revenue Service. Now, three former State Department officials fear that Musk's enforcers may soon gain access to another treasure trove – one that could help corner defense markets around the world.
The database, which concerns US-manufactured defense items for export, would provide Musk a unique and massive competitive advantage for his rocket company, SpaceX – and potentially for his allies in Silicon Valley, including artificial intelligence and datamining companies like Anduril and Palantir. SpaceX is both a major defense contractor and a foreign launch contract holder. Far beyond a conflict of interest, the ex-officials say, the impact of gaining access to the data could be seismic on the defense industry.
The trove is known as USXports, often shortened to USX. With contributions from the State, Defense, Commerce, and Treasury Departments, USXports is a master list of information on defense-export items, from guns to satellites, the companies that make them, and the foreign entities that purchase them. Its data is both granular enough to provide technical specifications on each item – specifications that companies producing them consider proprietary – and, in the aggregate, large enough to provide a picture of foreign defense markets only available to regulators. Much of that data, those who have had access to USXports say, isn't even released to Congress.
The “Most Intelligence” Musk Could Have
For a defense company eyeing foreign markets, USXports is "the most intelligence you could have," says one former State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "I can't imagine a better look at your competitors, outside being their IP general counsel."
Zeteo is presently unable to confirm that DOGE has access to USXports. A congressional aide says that Congress has minimal visibility into which agencies the DOGE team has access to and what they're prioritizing. And while sources interviewed for this story acknowledged the risk of alerting DOGE to USXports, they held the perspective that DOGE and its Project 2025 allies are already familiar with it.
The State Department did not directly address if DOGE had access to USXports. In response to questions from Zeteo, an official said generically, "The Department of State is fully complying with all Executive Orders and OPM directives to implement the President’s agenda. The Department is working collaboratively with all applicable Government departments fully in line with State Department and OPM protocols." It added that it would not address "internal personnel matters." The Pentagon did not answer Zeteo's specific questions about DOGE and USXports by the time of publication.
In addition to technical specifications about competitors' specific products, USXports also contains the contracting information between foreign purchasers and Musk's competitors. If a foreign government contracts for space launch vehicles made by one of SpaceX's rivals, USXports contains their prices and delivery schedules. With that information, according to a second ex-State Department official, Musk could undercut his competition and corner their markets.
And although USXports is geared toward foreign markets, technical specifications for rocket parts or related items sold abroad by SpaceX competitors may also be sold to Defense Department or NASA entities, in which case USXports gives something of a bankshot look into non-public aspects of domestic defense contracting.
USXports also contains information on compliance violations by US defense exporters, another potential source of inside information a competitor could weaponize. "If someone knew there was an investigation into SpaceX, then Blue Origin would have an advantage," the first ex-State official says. Such compliance investigations are so closely held that they are not briefed to Congress.