Emil Michael, the Pentagon official in charge of military AI policy, sold his Perplexity shares in June for somewhere between $5M and $25M, according to Aram Roston at the Guardian, which reviewed his financial disclosures. Michael had borrowed $250,000 to $500,000 from Perplexity at 4.57% the year before he entered government, and he sat on a company advisory board that he left when he took the job. Part of his stake was unvested, and his ethics agreement committed him to taking no profit on those shares, though the filings don’t say which ones he sold. Michael also cleared at least $5M in April selling a stake in Brex that he had valued at up to $750,000 in March 2025, a gain of at least 473%. The Pentagon said its officials, Michael included, follow ethics laws in full.
