US Army turns to private equity firms to help fund $150bn infrastructure overhaul

The US Army has enlisted some of Wall Street’s biggest private equity groups — including Apollo, Carlyle, KKR, Cerberus, and others — to help finance a $150 billion plan to modernize its infrastructure.

Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hosted a closed-door forum last Monday with around 15 leading investment firms to explore potential partnerships and financing models.

Driscoll told the Financial Times that the meeting aimed to find creative ways for private investors to help the Army unlock value from its underused assets. “We said, ‘Here are all the assets we have in our arsenals and depots that are underutilized — what kinds of deals could we work on together?’” he said.

The Army is seeking what Driscoll described as “meaty projects,” inviting proposals for innovative financing structures to bridge a major funding gap. Despite needing around $150 billion for upgrades, the Army has only $15 billion budgeted over the next decade. “We’re in a hole that we can’t dig out of without creative solutions from outside partners,” Driscoll said.

Potential projects could include developing data centers, building rare earth processing facilities, or creating public-private swaps where the Army exchanges land for access to computing power or mineral output. One attendee described the idea as “paying us in compute instead of cash.”

Participants said the discussion covered a wide range of possibilities, from refurbishing real estate to leveraging Army-owned land for financing and developing supply-chain funding models. “It was serious and very wide-ranging,” said one executive, noting that Driscoll and Bessent appeared committed to working with private capital.

The initiative marks a new phase in the Trump administration’s collaboration with the $13 trillion private capital industry. It follows an August executive order allowing US retirement plans to invest in private assets, further signaling Washington’s openness to private market solutions.

Driscoll, a former investment banker, has been pushing the Army Transformation Initiative, a program designed to update technology and logistics systems and foster cooperation with both Big Tech and defense startups. “The Silicon Valley approach is absolutely ideal for the Army,” he said in a recent address to the Association of the United States Army.

The Pentagon has already shown willingness to invest directly in industry, announcing in July a $400 million stake in rare earths producer MP Materials. Driscoll suggested the Army could follow a similar path, even building its own stockpile of critical minerals to secure supply chains disrupted by China’s export restrictions.

Over the coming weeks, the Army plans to review proposals and conduct due diligence, with another meeting scheduled in New York. Driscoll said he hopes to finalize several deals by year’s end.

Cerberus, which manages more than $65 billion in assets, and Carlyle, with $465 billion under management, were among the firms present. Others included Advent International, BDT & MSD, and several large family offices. Apollo, Advent, BDT & MSD, Carlyle, and KKR declined to comment.