The Army has asked private equity groups to suggest "meaty" strategic projects to help the service fund a $150 billion infrastructure overhaul, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a forum to talk about deals with some 15 of Wall Street's best-known buyout companies last Monday — including Apollo, Carlyle, KKR and Cerberus.
Driscoll said he asked them to propose "clever financing models or unique financing models" to help meet the Army's infrastructure needs.
This is the latest example of the Trump administration's attempts to work with the $13 trillion private capital industry — and an unprecedented attempt to enlist some of Wall Street's largest investors in the nation's security.
Driscoll added the projects could include data centers and rare earth processing facilities, and could involve the federal government exchanging land for computer processing power or output from rare earth processing.
One participant said the ideas at the forum included ways for private capital groups to construct data centers on army bases and enter lease agreements with the government — an effort to speed construction and lower capital costs.
The discussions between the government and the investors come after President Donald Trump's executive order in August opening U.S. retirement plans to private assets, in another sign of backing for the private capital industry.
Cerberus, one of the firms that attended the meeting, was founded by Steve Feinberg, who is Trump's deputy secretary of defense. Feinberg promised to divest his interests in Cerberus after he was picked, according to the Financial Times.
Driscoll's search for capital comes as he seeks a revamp of aging equipment.
The secretary, who has a background in investment banking, told the Financial Times that he had a budget of only $15 billion to spend on infrastructure over the next decade, but needs $150 billion.
"We are in a hole that we are not going to be able to dig out of without creative solutions coming in from outside parties," he said.
One participant in the forum said it "was serious and very wide ranging, involving ways to find cost-efficient capital for the Army's supply chain."
He added that, "the discussion ran the gamut, from finding financing to refurbish some real estate, or even raise financing against the real estate. There were also discussions on different financing tools for the army's supply chain and overall capex."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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