The French web journal Le Grand Continent published on March 25 an article by U.S. investigative journalist Katrina Manson, author of the just-released book Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare(https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/03/25/maven-pentagone-guerre-ia/). She wrote:
“For almost ten years, the American army has been working on the ‘Manhattan Project of our time.’ ‘Maven’ is the name of the program that enables AI to wage war in place of humans—and it is used daily in Iran. … Project Maven began in 2017 as a Pentagon effort to use AI to help analysts process massive volumes of surveillance imagery and video by drones.” In 2001, the U.S. had 44 drone sorties on the battlefield. Their number reached nearly 8,000 in 2020 with a “tsunami” of data unexploited.
Maven was conceived, pushed, and developed by Drew Cukor, who convinced the Pentagon “that the conduct of the war could be entrusted to machines.” To interview Cukor, journalist Manson met him “in the lobby of JPMorgan’s imposing New York headquarters, the investment bank where this retired Marine Corps colonel now runs the department dedicated to the ‘transformation’ of AI on behalf of its influential CEO,” Jaime Dimon.
As a reminder, around 2010-2013, JPMorgan Chase served as a key early commercial customer for Palantir, using its Metropolis platform to detect fraud, analyze consumer behavior, and manage mortgage data. However, a 2018 Bloomberg report revealed that a security chief at JPMorgan used Palantir software to extensively monitor employees—tracking emails, GPS locations, and browser histories—leading to scrutiny over the misuse of big data technology.
In May 2025, a partnership was announced involving Palantir, TWG Global, and xAI to enhance AI in financial services. And as of late 2025, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has become a significant investor in Palantir. According to Q3 2025 reports, JPMC increased its stake by 115% to hold over 34 million shares, valued at more than $6 billion, making it a major shareholder in the company. In early 2026, JPMorgan CEO, investment banker Jamie Dimon, paid a visit to Palantir to discuss AI and the future of national security.
Manson explained: “Under Drew Cukor’s direction, Project Maven not only introduced AI in military operations—it has shifted the center of gravity of the decision. What was presented as a technical modernization has become a fundamental shift in power: a fragile alliance between an army haunted by decline, a Silicon Valley initially reluctant then absorbed by this revolution, and opaque systems capable of identifying, classifying and to strike at an inhuman speed.”
For Project Maven, Cukor recruited tech giants better known for their online sales services and office software than for their ability to kill. Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are providing the project with algorithmic warfare capabilities. Others involved were NVIDIA, and now, Anthropic. Even Google, whose employees had initially protested against their involvement in the “war industry” when in 2018 they discovered their participation in the Maven project, is now performing activities related to national security.
Alex Karp, the billionaire CEO of Palantir Technologies, which quickly joined the project, describes Cukor as the “father” of “AI targeting.”
