Private Machines Inc.

Private Machines Inc., a for-profit entity based in Brooklyn, New York, delivers hardware security, embedded firmware, and AI platform engineering to the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies as a prime contractor (71% of recent awards) and as a subcontractor on defense security programs. The vendor competes in full-and-open federal procurements without set-aside designations.

Private Machines' federal work centers on secure systems and applied research. The vendor holds three prime contracts with the Office of Naval Research totaling $6.6 million in combined potential value: a $3.673 million firm fixed-price definitive contract awarded March 12, 2026, to deliver a secure AI platform with anti-tamper and edge deployment capabilities leveraging the ENFORCER platform, running through March 13, 2030; a $2.916 million contract awarded August 17, 2023, for XBIOS, a universal open-source security-hardened firmware to support Navy explosive ordnance disposal operations, with ultimate completion May 16, 2027; and a research grant awarded June 1, 2023, for BONANZA, a virtualized deception honeypot for firmware boot and rootkit detection, completing June 30, 2026. The vendor also holds awards from the National Security Foundation (three awards), the Department of the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory ($634 thousand across two awards), and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate ($2.2 million). Work is performed at the vendor's Brooklyn headquarters.

Customer concentration is diffuse across defense and research agencies. The Office of Naval Research accounts for three awards and $6.6 million — roughly 57% of combined potential value — while the Department of the Army, National Science Foundation, Air Force, and DHS each hold smaller award counts and dollar values. The Navy Naval Air Systems Command and DHS S&T Directorate anchor the second tier of customers. The vendor's award portfolio is heavily R&D-oriented, with Engineering Services and applied or basic research in physical and engineering sciences constituting the primary NAICS categories.

In subcontractor roles, Private Machines supplies hardware security services and ENFORCER platform integration to Viasat on multiple security-focused subcontracts beginning March 2023, including FIPS validation support and off-site R&D labor. The portfolio reflects a concentration on defense applied research and systems hardening rather than on services integration or sustainment — awards across the last five years show activity clustering in 2023 (five awards) with sparse awards in 2016, 2017, 2024, and 2026. One award, the XBIOS contract, reaches ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and faces recompete, representing $2.9 million in potential value exposure.

ENFORCER SRX1: the world's first Level 4 tamper-proof server.

CipherRack: the world's first tamper-proof cloud control plane.

ENFORCER SRX1 is the world's first NIST FIPS 140-2 Level 4 tamper-proof server. SRX1 provides tamper-proof secure computation environments wherein all processing is physically and logically protected. SRX1 is high performance and can securely execute x86 operating systems and software. SRX1 is standard rackable and using the CipherRack control plane it can dynamically and transparently integrate into any barebone data center or cloud infrastructure.

CipherRack is a secure data center and cloud control plane that transparently integrates the high-performance Level 4 tamper-proof ENFORCER SRX1 servers in the fabric of data centers, infrastructures and clouds (OpenStack, Azure, Google, Amazon EC2, ...). Users do not have to trust the data center or cloud operator, even with physical access to the hardware.