The Pentagon announced that it has entered into agreements with eight AI companies to deploy their intelligence on classified systems. An earlier press release mentioned seven firms: Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, SpaceX, Nvidia, and Reflection, a newer startup backed by Nvidia.
Later, the Pentagon CTO’s office posted on X that “Oracle has officially agreed to join the list of AI companies deploying frontier capabilities on the Department’s classified networks.”
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In a statement, the Department of War said it has “entered into agreements with eight of the world’s leading frontier artificial intelligence companies […] to deploy their advanced AI capabilities on the Department’s classified networks for lawful operational use. 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.”
The Department of War’s noted the initiative will advance its AI Acceleration Strategy by unlocking new capabilities across its three key areas: warfighting, intelligence, and enterprise operations.
“Integrating secure frontier AI capabilities into the Department’s Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7) network environments will streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments. [The eight AI companies] will provide resources to deploy their capabilities on both IL6 and IL7 environments,” the statement added.
GenAI.mil, the War Department’s official AI platform, is already said to be demonstrating the scale and impact of this acceleration with over 1.3 million department personnel using the platform, generating tens of millions of prompts and deploying hundreds of thousands of agents in only five months.
One major AI company is conspicuous for its absence in the list: Anthropic. However, this is not surprising considering the company had a fallout with the Pentagon after it pushed back on pressure to provide unrestricted access to its Claude AI program for “all lawful use.”
Anthropic was labeled a “supply chain risk,” after it raised concerns about its AI being used for autonomous weapons and for mass surveillance. This has led to a court battle, though there have been signs of shifts, particularly with administration wanting to access the firm’s powerful new Mythos AI model.
The Pentagon’s agreements with OpenAI and Google had previously been confirmed, as had a deal with Elon Musk’s xAI. The three companies had agreed to the Pentagon’s “all lawful use” provision as part of those agreements.
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There has been increasing scrutiny and pushback against the U.S. government’s use of AI amid its mass deportation campaign, as well as the war in Iran. Rights groups have said that the technology company Palantir has been used to collect real-time data on potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targets. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran have raised questions about the use of AI targeting systems.
Speaking during a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand questioned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on civilian harm oversight and the use of AI. Hegseth responded saying “no military, no country works harder at every echelon to ensure they protect civilian lives than the United States military, and that is an ironclad commitment that we make, no matter how…no matter what system we use.”