Palantir and Anduril have reportedly built a technology consortium to bid on defense contracts

Two major players in defense technology, Palantir and Anduril, are talking with technology companies including SpaceX, OpenAI, Saronic and Scale AI about forming a consortium to bid on Pentagon contracts, according to Report in the Financial Times.

The Financial Times says the goal is to challenge the dominance of “major” defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing. One unnamed participant described this as an attempt to “provide a new generation of defense contractors,” while another said this would be a more efficient way to sell advanced weapons and other technology to the government.

Initial partnerships could be announced as soon as January, according to the report.

Palantir and Anduril (both named after magical items in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings movie) hinted that something like this was in the works earlier this month, with Declaration of integration Between Palantir’s AI platform and Anduril’s Lattice software. At the time, the companies said they were “launching a new consortium to ensure the US government leads the world in AI.”