WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Defense signed contracts in July 2025 with Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI to develop artificial intelligence prototypes for military applications. The agreements, each worth up to $200 million, task the companies with building tools for warfighting, logistics, intelligence, and automated decision-making.

The Intercept obtained more than 400 pages of documents related to the U.S. military contracts through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit conducted with Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology. Under the contracts, the companies agreed to build prototypes of artificial intelligence tools to improve military advantage, military utility, or enhance military decision making across the armed forces.

The prototypes form the basis of artificial intelligence tools deployed across the Department of Defense’s classified networks. The document set includes one contract reflecting OpenAI’s classified network deployment. An information sharing provision in all four agreements creates a two-way exchange of data and expertise between the government and the technology firms.

The companies agreed to provide access to their large language models and inform Department of Defense and Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office strategy on frontier AI. The AI labs were approved to receive sensitive information including benchmarks datasets for Department of Defense use cases, briefings on operational missions and threats, and Department of Defense plans and strategies for future AI adoption. The companies also agreed to provide the Pentagon feedback on Department of Defense strategies for frontier AI adoption.

The collaboration entails Big Tech providing training and educational seminars directly to the military. Google would lead multiple seminars on responsible AI deployment. Engineers and policy experts from all four contractors will conduct tabletop exercises with the Pentagon. The AI companies were contractually scheduled to provide risk forecasting and threat ideation exercises.

The companies pledged to offer briefings on corporate inner workings, including frontier AI model performance, case studies on current or likely future frontier AI applications, and projections of future trends in frontier AI maturation. Google was tapped to inform the Pentagon on AI tactics and techniques of adversaries of the United States. The briefings would be conducted in both unclassified and classified settings.

"This appears to be the first time the extent of collaboration between frontier AI labs and the Pentagon is spelled out in explicit terms," said Sophia Goodfriend, University of Cambridge research fellow and non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. "What’s particularly notable is the terms by which engineers are working in lockstep with the department of war to engineer AI systems for surveillance, targeting, and killing."

"This is a very concerning development," said Heidy Khlaaf, chief scientist at the AI Now Institute and former safety engineer at OpenAI. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell defended the agreements as necessary for national security. "We must equip our warfighters with 21st-century technology in order to defeat 21st-century threats," Parnell said.

A Google spokesperson stated that the partnerships would drive efficiency within the defense sector. "These advanced AI solutions will enable the DoD to effectively address defense challenges and scale the adoption of agentic AI across enterprise systems to drive innovation and efficiency with agile, proven technology," the spokesperson said.

Timeline

The Department of Defense signed contracts in July 2025 with Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Prototyping and Experimentation Alexander Lovett showed a drone to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael at a display of multi-domain autonomous systems in the Pentagon courtyard on July 16, 2025.

What's New

In March 2026, OpenAI closed a funding round with a post-money valuation of US$852 billion, making it one of the most valuable AI pure play companies in the world, rivalled only by Anthropic. Defense Department published notice titled "Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request" on 2026-09-04. OpenAI is American artificial intelligence research organization. OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence public benefit corporation (PBC) headquartered in San Francisco that develops proprietary generative AI models, particularly its generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) series of large language models.

Why It Matters

The contracts establish a formalized channel for frontier AI laboratories to share sensitive data and strategic insights with the military. The agreements allow for a two-way exchange where the Department of Defense receives briefings on operational missions and threats, while the companies gain access to benchmarks datasets and feedback on their models. This structure integrates private sector AI development directly into defense planning and classified network operations.