Pentagon awards AI contracts to Google, OpenAI, xAI and Anthropic

By Jackie Davalos

 

Four of the top US artificial intelligence developers won contracts from the Defense Department aimed at accelerating the military’s adoption of the emerging technology.

 

The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office said Monday that it will grant contracts to Alphabet Inc.’s Google, OpenAI, Elon Musk’s xAI and Anthropic PBC. The exact dollar value was not disclosed, but the agency said each contract will have a ceiling of $200 million. 

 

“Leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems,” said Doug Matty, who heads the CDAO.

 

 

The contracts represent a significant revenue stream for AI companies, which have been looking to expand their reach into the public sector. On Monday, xAI said in a social media post that it was unveiling “Grok for Government,” a suite of products to sell to the US government. 

 

The Pentagon said it is applying a “commercial-first” approach to speeding up the adoption of AI. The agreements would also allow other federal agencies to leverage the AI tools through a partnership with the General Services Administration.