Following billionaire Elon Musk’s departure from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in late spring 2025, several of the group’s members found a new home within the federal government: the National Design Studio. Led by Joe Gebbia, a cofounder of Airbnb, a former member of DOGE, and currently the chief design officer of the US, the NDS is nested in the Executive Office of the President and has been tasked with redesigning government websites and services.
As with DOGE before it, who exactly is a part of NDS—and what they’re working on—often remains opaque. But a WIRED investigation has found that at least two members of NDS are on loan to the government and are actually employed by a recently formed nonprofit, the America by Design Foundation. This entity appears to be run by James Burnham, a former member of DOGE and the current general counsel of SpaceXAI, the artificial intelligence space company founded by Musk. It is not clear who is funding the foundation or how much money it has.
These findings raise questions about whether NDS, like DOGE, is skirting rules and regulations to bring its chosen staff into government and is functioning as an arm of the tech industry as much as a government initiative.
“The fact that we wouldn’t know who is employing and paying these people is troubling in any context,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “Especially in the context where there is a back-and-forth movement from the private sector to the public sector.”
The White House announced the creation of the National Design Studio in August 2025 as part of a broader initiative called America by Design, which an executive order described as “a national initiative to improve experiences for Americans.” In the past year, NDS was responsible for launching websites such as TrumpRx and RealFood.gov. In addition to Gebbia, several other DOGE members have worked for or contributed to NDS. Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, one of the young engineers who formed the early core of DOGE and who entered the government at just 19 years old, now serves as the group’s head of engineering. Akash Bobba, another young engineer whose work spanned several government agencies, and Zachary Terrell, the chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, have also been part of both NDS and DOGE.
Many DOGE operatives also entered government as special government employees, a designation that allows people to work in government for 120 days out of a year without going through the full federal hiring process or requiring the usual level of transparency disclosures. NDS appears to be using a similar strategy by bringing in staff under the Intergovernment Personnel Act, a law meant to allow people with specialized skills from institutions like universities and nonprofit organizations to work in government for up to two years.
