When Divya Ganesan began her political science studies at Stanford in 2021, a career in national security wasn’t on her radar. According to The San Francisco Standard, she recalled that defense intelligence firms like Palantir, which contract with the government, were once “super looked down upon” on campus. “They were seen as the evil guys,” Ganesan told the publication. But the campus mood has since transformed. After enrolling in the popular course “Spies, Lies, and Algorithms” in 2022, Ganesan reportedly found herself captivated by defense technology. She went on to cofound Stanford Women in National Security (WINS), a student group that now boasts over 150 members, and pursued internships at the National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “My most effective and moral friends are now working for Palantir,” she told The San Francisco Standard. Palantir, cofounded by Peter Thiel -— a known supporter of President Donald Trump—provides surveillance and targeting systems to the military and has seen its stock soar to record highs since Trump’s inauguration.
Defense companies that are no longer “looked down upon” at Stanford
Stanford graduates are landing roles at high-profile firms like Palantir, Anduril, Vannevar Labs, and Shield AI, while others are founding their own security startups. Max Susman, a former Navy SEAL and Stanford MBA student, started Revere Technologies, a drone company, and praised the Gordian Knot Center’s support. “I haven’t had to fly to D.C. Senior Pentagon officials make a stop at Stanford or the Gordian Knot, and I get an audience,” he told The San Francisco Standard.
Stanford students are, as per the report, said to be increasingly embracing the idea of building tech for the U.S. government. Some are even leaving school to launch defense tech startups or vie for prestigious internships at government agencies and major contractors. Undergraduates, business school students, recent alumni, and faculty alike are fueling a growing enthusiasm for developing military technology, The San Francisco Standard reports.
Ganesan, who once wrestled with the ethics of defense work, now feels differently. “In great power politics, people die. Often more impulsive, less pragmatic men make those decisions, and as a well-educated woman, I’d rather be in the room,” she explained to The San Francisco Standard. This marks a stark departure from the sentiment just seven years ago, when, in 2018, Stanford students and activists protested outside Palantir’s Palo Alto headquarters over its contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That same year, thousands of Google employees petitioned against “Project Maven,” a Pentagon AI drone-targeting initiative.
Today, interest in defense-related coursework is surging. Enrollment in “Hacking for Defense,” where students collaborate with American military sponsors on security challenges, has spiked. To meet this demand, Stanford launched the Gordian Knot Center in 2021 with an initial $1.28 million from the US Office of Naval Research. Named after an ancient Greek metaphor for complex problems, the center has become a hub for defense tech programs, supporting WINS, the National Security Innovation Scholars fellowship, and the Stanford DEFCON conference, which drew over 1,000 attendees last year. Faculty have also introduced courses like “Technology Innovation and Great Power Competition” in 2020 and “Entrepreneurship Inside Government” in 2025 to cater to eager undergraduates.
