The U.S. Department of Defense has forged agreements with a group of major tech vendors to use their AI tools on classified networks.
In a statement released on May 1, the department confirmed deals with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft, AWS and Oracle.
While provisional agreements had already been in place with some, signed contracts pave the way for the tools to be formally embedded in operations.
The vendors’ AI models and capabilities have been cleared for “lawful operational use,” with the statement adding: “These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare.”
One name notable by its absence from the list of approved suppliers, however, is Anthropic, following its dramatic fallout with the administration earlier this year, following the vendor’s refusal to relax safety guardrails amid concerns its tech would be used for autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
“I am directing every federal Agency in the United States Government to immediately cease all use of Anthropic’s technology,” President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform at the time.
Meanwhile, Secretary [of Defense Pete Hegseth accused the company on X of “trying to strong-arm the United States military into submission” and added: “America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech.”
The dispute is now in court, with Anthropic suing the Trump administration for labeling it a supply chain risk.”
The companies that the defense department agreed to deals with will allow their tech to be integrated into Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7) network environments. IL6 refers to networks that handle secret data, while IL7 covers the most highly classified systems.
According to the department, the companies’ provision of resources will “streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments”.
At the same time, the department’s growing reliance on AI was underscored by newly released figures regarding GenAI.mil, its official AI platform that offers access to LLMs in approved cloud environments. The department says more than 1.3 million department personnel have used it, with hundreds of thousands of agents deployed in just five months.
The department also reiterated its ongoing commitment to build an AI stack that prevents vendor lock-in and gives military organizations the tools they need.
