The CIA’s first CTO, Nand Mulchandani, prepares for the Trump administration

In April 2022, the CIA decided to swipe right on Nanda Mulchandani, appointing him as its first Chief Technology Officer. It was a good look for the CIA. Mulchandani, who previously served as CTO and acting director of the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, is something of a rare breed in Washington. Before becoming a public servant, he co-founded and was CEO of a string of Bay Area outfits with almost comically Silicon Valley-esque names: Oblix, Determinea, OpenDNS and ScaleXtreme, each of them owned by a tech titan (Oracle, VMWare, Cisco and Citrix respectively ).

Mulchandani may soon be surrounded by co-founders and technologists as the Trump administration rushes to Washington with powerful advisers like Elon Musk.

We recently spoke with Mulchandani about that shift and its potential implications — and whether he wants to be a part of it. That’s a lingering question given that Mulchandani was not handpicked by the president and that his boss, CIA Director William Burns, will step down, to be replaced by former Texas congressman John Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence for President-elect Trump. In Trump’s first term.

The following has been edited for length.

What conversations are happening right now before the Trump administration comes in?

The big picture is that no one thinks there is a huge shift coming in technology and China. When Director Barnes joined, his focus and redirection and emphasis for this organization was primarily on great power competition. The way we like to talk about it is, dynamic warfare [i.e. conventional combat] And things happen all the time in the world. But the next generation of competition is an economic competition and at its core is technology competition. So the way he laid out the strategic priorities for the agency was basically a focus on China and, again, this pivot to technology. So launching [two new mission centers in 2021, one focused on China and another dedicated to transnational and technological threats] And then the creation of the CTO role was the biggest organizational change he made. And in all honesty … it would probably be a priority for any administration ….

Obviously, we’re hearing a lot about DOGE and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s plans to shrink — or at least how to shrink — the size of government they offer. Has anyone in Musk’s camp spoken to anyone at the CIA? Jared Birchall, head of Musk’s family office, was speaking, for example, to State Department candidates.

I can’t speak to specific presidential changes going on government-wide. What I can talk about – although this is not entirely a comment on DOGE but a key theme we have emphasized – is the technology enablement of government and government processes. . . And using AI and other pieces to bring precision and scale to our operations. So I cannot comment specifically on what they are trying to achieve. Does it cost? Is it technology deployment at scale? Our focus is all kinds of above. . . . I mean, it would be crazy not to actually focus in a big way, and we’re focusing on that as well.

In any transition, you will have people trying to assess what their priorities should be. At the CIA, what would you say these priorities should be?

There are evergreen problems that will last forever. One is our focus on data insights, and I know this sounds like buzzword bingo, but specifically AI – it’s being deployed. [the right way should be a priority]. If we had a whiteboard, what I would draw for you is the funnel of data that exists and is growing in the world. As an intelligence agency, we are very, very data hungry, be it human intelligence collection, electronic, geo. . . This is the essence of an intelligence service. The problem is that the scope and size and scale of the funnel and data is growing every day, and you can always find more data to vacuum up and bring in – some of it good, some of it rubbish. As that funnel grows infinitely, our infrastructure and systems and applications need to be constantly reinvented . .

number two [ties to] The growing aspect of defense technology and the idea of ​​disruptive Silicon Valley companies are now turning to military technology and national security to serve us with products and services. That trend is an important one for us to continue to support.

Another big one [related] One of the initiatives we’re running and scaling up is: How can we dramatically lower the onboarding bar to commercial technology? This is what we call the inbound arc. The flip side of this is, how do we actually project our needs? So as a spy agency, as an intelligence agency, we culturally cannot talk to the outside about our problems and problem sets and initiatives and strategic issues; We were traditionally very quiet or very pure about this kind of stuff. Obviously we have to keep our work classified, but we now have another initiative that we’re going to launch next month where we’re going to have direct conversations with investors, VCs and startups. [about these needs] . . . As opposed to a strategic focus only on collection or acquisition or other pieces.

Speaking of VCs, what do you think on a personal level about people like Marc Andreessen? advice Appointment of President-elect Trump? Obviously, he’s a very smart guy, but sometimes skill sets aren’t transferable to other industries.

I would say that my salary is out of grade. I mean, I know a lot of these people, and obviously they’re extremely smart. I’ll give you my personal experience – and obviously I can’t directly advise the President on non-tech issues. But ultimately what happens is that as a former CEO, as a businessman, the thing that I often talk about in agencies at our leadership level is the business model. My CS degree hopefully qualifies me to speak [technology]. The other piece of experience that I bring to the table is running these businesses and making business decisions, and my feeling is that that experience and that perspective is incredibly valuable in Washington. I feel sometimes that in government, we often don’t talk enough about business models and how to run things efficiently, how to scale them, how technology is destroying business models, how it can enable new business models. In many of the projects I’ve brought in or been involved with, I always try to open up: How is our business model changing at the CIA? As a human intelligence agency in a world of technology, in a world of AI, in a world of superpower competition, in a world of hard targets, what does the CIA’s business model look like in five? , 10, 20 years ago, and how is it changing?

You are not a political recruiter. If this is an option you want to stay or are you ready to come back to Silicon Valley? I know you have been traveling between coasts for the past five years.

This is an almost daily discussion with my wife and kids. I’m actually in the East Bay [of San Francisco] Right now, that’s where we live. My wife got her career. Our children are well settled. We have close relatives. So I’m traveling almost every week to Washington or other places that agency, and DOD [before this]Sent me or I need. And I’ve got to be honest with you, the mileage is showing now. . .

I think the broader issue that’s still a concern is that there aren’t enough Valley people in DC, and that’s something I’m personally very concerned about. When I look around in DC, I can literally count on one hand the number of people in the same position as me, I mean. [they have] Deep roots in the valley. This is a big commitment, especially for kids and family people.

Can you see a day when the CIA will build a second hub on the West Coast?

For now, we are settling in well at our headquarters [in Langley, Virginia]. But if they basically bring some new ideas into this administration, and they want to involve more technology people, who knows?