Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, May 10th. Today on Forbes, META is recruiting

former Pentagon officials as it ramps up military ambitions. Meta is courting national security

and former Pentagon officials to help sell its virtual reality and AI services to the federal

government, Forbes has learned.

Multiple former government officials said they were aware of the recruiting efforts.

Mehta, which recently opened up its Lama AI model for military use, has long maintained

lobbyists in D.C., but almost half a dozen current open roles indicate it is bolstering its efforts to secure

lucrative government contracts. The company is seeking two public policy managers,

including one to focus on the White House, preferably with the security clearance and previous

Pentagon work. To quote, lead our outreach to national security and foreign policy agencies within the

executive branch of the U.S. government on both policy issues and adoption of our technologies.

In January, META hired Francis Brennan, a former Trump advisor to lead strategic communications

out of D.C. Another recent hire, who, according to their LinkedIn, worked for

an undisclosed federal government agency for more than a decade, posted about joining

meta to focus on its, quote, intelligence sharing with the government. In December, the employee

posted on LinkedIn, quote, whether it's protecting national security or strengthening the

platforms that billions rely on,

I'm grateful for the opportunities that allow me to give back.

Meta declined to comment. The move comes amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg's ongoing charm offensive

to win over the Trump administration, looking for leniency as metafights of federal antitrust

lawsuit aiming to break it up. After donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee,

Zuckerberg announced Facebook was ending its third-party fact-checking program, a longtime target

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