Pentagon Signs AI Deals With Google, OpenAI, xAI and 4 Others

The Pentagon announced Friday that it had reached agreements with seven leading artificial intelligence companies — SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services — to deploy their advanced AI capabilities on the Defense Department's classified networks at Impact Levels 6 and 7. The agreements are designed to streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments, with the Pentagon stating the deals will "accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force." The agreements allow the Pentagon to use these companies' AI models for "any lawful government purpose," placing Google alongside OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI, which also have deals to supply AI models for classified military use. The announcement follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's unveiling of a new "AI acceleration strategy" at the Pentagon in January, which he said would "unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments, and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI." The Department of Defense is budgeting tens of billions of dollars for cutting-edge technology programs related to intelligence, drone warfare, and both classified and unclassified information networks. Notably, Anthropic — another major AI company — has been excluded from these agreements due to an ongoing dispute with the Pentagon over guardrails for military AI use, which led the department to label Anthropic a supply-chain risk last month, effectively barring its use by the Pentagon and its contractors. The initiative has sparked controversy and raised concerns over public spending, global cybersecurity, and the potential for such technology to be used for domestic surveillance. The move represents a significant expansion of AI integration within U.S. military operations, positioning the technology as central to future defense strategy rather than merely supplementary.