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A classified CIA satellite-reconnaissance program approached Steve Jobs’s NeXT in 1986, seeking computer technology for intelligence work as the startup struggled to build a commercial market. Joe Romello and Jeffrey Harris, working for “Program B,” first visited NeXT’s headquarters and later pursued Jobs directly. Romello proposed buying 20,000 workstations within a year for an undisclosed customer, with aftermarket modifications supplied by Motorola and Intel. The order gave NeXT large-scale demand while its expensive machines remained beyond most individual buyers and university sales fell short of Jobs’s expectations. The arrangement linked Silicon Valley production to Cold War reconnaissance needs.

Details

• Terms of deal: Romello told Jobs the customer wanted a faster Motorola chip and a specialized Intel graphics card. NeXT would not handle those changes: the CIA arranged for proxies to install them after purchase. Jobs declined classified details, telling Romello not to share anything he would need to forget.
• Buyer kept hidden: Publicly, NeXT described the business as a federal government contract conducted with defense company ESL. CIA involvement remained concealed even within government, and the National Security Agency appeared as the official purchaser. Dain Ehring, who worked with Romello on the contract, identified that arrangement.
• Factory ramp-up: The CIA brought in a Sun Microsystems team with prior agency experience to help expand manufacturing. NeXT’s first production month delivered 100 workstations; output then climbed to 1,500 machines a month and later 5,000. The rapid increase turned the secret order into a major manufacturing operation.
• Covert delivery: Unmarked trucks collected computers from NeXT’s warehouse early in the morning and carried them to a CIA front company. There, modified chips and visual processors were installed before the units were moved to Moffett Field, loaded aboard C-5 transport aircraft and flown to classified destinations.
• Intelligence mission: National Reconnaissance Office analysts used NeXT’s high-resolution displays and specialized chips to examine satellite imagery for military movements and missile-silo construction. The workstations also supported shared briefings for lawmakers or the president, combining voice-over-video, still images and annotations. Jobs later received a top-secret clearance to visit classified facilities.

Background

Jobs had another link to intelligence technology through his February 1986 acquisition of Lucasfilm’s computer-graphics division, which made the Pixar Image Computer. The division had worked with ESL to build a customized system for analysts evaluating satellite images. ESL president Robert Kohler, a former senior CIA official, later told Jobs that the tasks NeXT targeted for students and researchers resembled work performed inside the intelligence community.

What’s next

The next concrete indicator is defense-focused venture investment: tens of billions of dollars are now flowing into hundreds of startups as Silicon Valley and the Pentagon renew their ties.