Exclusive: Domino snags $16.5 million AI deal amid Pentagon software push
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Domino Data Lab will spearhead artificial intelligence efforts for the U.S. Navy's Project AMMO following a $16.5 million deal.
The big picture: The award — made through the APFIT program, designed to accelerate procurement of innovative technologies — comes amid growing pressure inside and outside the Pentagon to smartly adopt software.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in March issued a memo titled "Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality."
- And the Atlantic Council that same month published a report on "software-defined warfare," arguing the U.S. is still moored to an acquisition system "ill-suited to the rapid tempo of modern technological innovation."
The latest: The money allows Domino and its partners to continue their work, which involves developing, deploying and retraining models for unmanned underwater vehicles.
- Early work on Project AMMO was tied to mine countermeasures. That scope is expanding as part of the APFIT arrangement.
What they're saying: "Domino is the glue," Joel Meyer, the company's president of public sector, told Axios.
- "Without Domino, the user would end up having to leverage multiple different tools, different logins, different ways to access data, different ways to spin up."
Zoom out: Domino is working with Latent AI, Fiddler AI, Weights & Biases and Arize AI.
- "This is an opportunity for military organizations to take advantage of what's been going on in the commercial industry for a long time," Doug Small, an adviser to Latent and former head of Project Overmatch, said in an interview.
What we're watching: If and how success here, with the Navy, translates to wins among the other services.
