Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia speaks during the July 16 Government Efficiency Summit. Zaid Hamid/Nextgov/FCW

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Federal Chief Information Officer Greg Barbaccia is returning to Palantir after he departs the federal government on Aug. 31. 

General Services Administration head Edward Forst noted at a U.S. Digital Corps graduation ceremony on Wednesday that Barbaccia would be going back to the company. Two people familiar with the matter confirmed the move after the event.

"[Barbaccia has] been an unbelievable partner to me in so many things: technology, professional, business and personal,” Forst said on stage. “Luckily, Palantir gets you back in that way.”

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to publicly discuss Barbaccia’s plans. It’s not clear what his role will be at Palantir or when he will start. His departure from the federal government was reported earlier this month.

An Office of Management and Budget spokesperson did not return a request for comment by the time of publication.

Barbaccia joined OMB in January 2025 after a decade at Palantir and subsequent stints at Elementus and Theorem. He previously served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence sergeant and intelligence community analyst in the 2000s.

During his time in the Trump administration, Barbaccia oversaw several sweeping government technology initiatives as the federal chief information officer and the chief AI officer. He also became the government’s service delivery lead under the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act.

Barbaccia also pushed agencies to rethink how they buy and manage technology, sought tougher enforcement of a 2014 law giving agency CIOs authority over technology investments and explored ways for OMB to track major IT decisions across agencies.

His return to Palantir comes after a turbulent period for the federal technology workforce, including Department of Government Efficiency’s push to downsize government, broad personnel losses across the federal enterprise and a reshuffling of many agency CIO roles. Barbaccia has acknowledged those disruptions but argued that artificial intelligence and a new early-career U.S. Tech Force program could help the government rebuild technical capacity.

GovExec Editor-in-Chief Frank Konkel contributed to this report.