Unbiased AI-powered news
Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox, who led DOGE efforts at multiple agencies, announced their startup Special will build an AI operating system and acquire businesses in senior care, construction, and manufacturing.
thegatewaypundit.comNate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox announced plans to launch Special, a startup that will build an operating system to transform critical American industries with AI. The pair posted on a16z’s Substack that Main Street, like the federal government, is inefficient and that the company will vertically integrate by buying businesses in critical sectors and running them on Special’s operating system.
Their first target is senior care through a vertical called FigureHealth.
In an interview on TBPN, Cavanaugh said Special is also looking at markets like construction, manufacturing, and other very labor intensive, highly regulated markets where learnings from DOGE can be applied to the private sector. Cavanaugh and Fox wrote that one needs to look no further than childcare learning centers in Minnesota or hospice businesses in California to find immense waste at the state level from businesses that benefit from taxpayer dollars.
Fraud allegations against Minnesota childcare centers formed the justification for President Donald Trump’s administration to deploy thousands of immigration agents to the state earlier this year.
Andreessen Horowitz led the funding round for Special. Steve Davis, Antonio Gracias, Baris Akis, Anthony Armstrong, Donald Park, Adam Ramada, and Brooks Morgan, all described as DOGE teammates, are backing the venture. Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer at Palantir, also participated in the round.
Adam Ramada and Brooks Morgan founded the Austin-based BANNER VC after leaving DOGE in August 2025. Cavanaugh and Fox did not respond to requests for comment, nor did their apparent investors. While part of DOGE, Cavanaugh and Fox led the forcible takeover of the US Institute of Peace.
After being installed as USIP’s acting director, Cavanaugh attempted to gift its building to the government, a move now the subject of an ongoing court case. Cavanaugh was also appointed acting director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, and at both institutions he put nearly all staff members on administrative leave.
The two were also part of the DOGE takeover of the National Labor Relations Board.
Whistleblower Dan Berulis claimed that DOGE members had compromised sensitive data and appeared to be exfiltrating it out of the NLRB. Berulis also claimed that after DOGE members accessed the systems, an IP address in Russia attempted to log into the systems. Six days after Berulis filed his whistleblower disclosure to Congress, his car’s brake lines were cut.
The NLRB’s Office of the Inspector General is continuing to investigate Berulis’ claims. ” Fox also revealed that Anthony Armstrong, one of Special’s investors, was the father of a friend and a mentor. Last month, WIRED reported that former DOGE member Ethan Shaotran is now running a defense tech startup.
In an email viewed by WIRED, Shaotran described his startup as backed by big names.
nypost.comSuper PACs tied to Anthropic and OpenAI have spent more than $37 million on congressional primaries this cycle. The groups have outspent candidates in some races and focused on candidates who back differing approaches to AI regulation.