"The U.S. is quietly investing in AI agents for cyberwarfare, spending millions this year on a secretive startup that’s using AI for offensive cyberattacks on American enemies.
According to federal contracting records, a stealth, Arlington, Virginia-based startup called Twenty, or XX, signed a contract with the U.S. Cyber Command this summer worth up to $12.6 million. It scored a $240,000 research contract with the Navy, too. The company has received VC support from In-Q-Tel, the nonprofit venture capital organization founded by the CIA, as well as Caffeinated Capital and General Catalyst. Twenty couldn’t be reached for comment at the time of publication.
Twenty’s contracts are a rare case of an AI offensive cyber company with VC backing landing Cyber Command work; typically cyber contracts have gone to either small bespoke companies or to the old guard of defense contracting like Booz Allen Hamilton or L3Harris.
Though the firm hasn’t launched publicly yet, its website states its focus is “transforming workflows that once took weeks of manual effort into automated, continuous operations across hundreds of targets simultaneously.” Twenty claims it is “fundamentally reshaping how the U.S. and its allies engage in cyber conflict.”"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/11/15/pentagon-spends-millions-on-ai-hackers/
#CyberSecurity #AI #Hacking #USA #Pentagon #DoD #Twenty #Startups #Cyberwarfare