Two former staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency have decided to take their government cost-cutting playbook private. Justin Fox and Nathan Cavanaugh, who both left DOGE in the summer of 2025, are launching a venture that plans to acquire companies and reduce operational waste using AI, essentially the same approach they deployed while analyzing federal spending under the Trump administration.
From federal grants to private acquisitions
During their time at DOGE, Fox and Cavanaugh used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to analyze grant requests across federal agencies. The result, according to their own accounts, was the identification of $100 million in potential cuts, including reductions at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
By March 2026, the pair’s AI-assisted analysis had flagged 1,477 grants recommended for termination.
DOGE was established in 2025 with an ambitious target: up to $2 trillion in federal spending cuts. Fox and Cavanaugh’s contributions were reportedly insufficient to meaningfully dent that goal.
