Artificial intelligence. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Pentagon is betting big on agentic AI, and it’s turning to the world’s top tech firms to make it happen.

OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Elon Musk’s xAI have each secured contracts worth up to $200 million to help develop advanced AI systems for national security. 

The deals aim to accelerate agentic AI workflows, or systems capable of reasoning, planning, and taking action with minimal human input, for military use.

“The adoption of AI is transforming the [Pentagon’s] ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries,” Chief Digital and AI Officer Doug Matty said.

Grok logo. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The contracts are part of a broader push to harness AI in addressing critical national security challenges, from real-time decision support to complex threat response.

‘Grok for Government’

The deals were announced just days after xAI rolled out “Grok for Government,” a suite that allows security agencies to adopt its chatbots for their specific uses.

Musk is positioning this program as a direct challenger to OpenAI, which has also been steadily expanding its presence within the US military.

“Under the umbrella of Grok For Government, we will be bringing all of our world-class AI tools to federal, local, state, and national security customers,” the company stated.

“These customers will be able to use the Grok family of products to accelerate America – from making everyday government services faster and more efficient to using AI to address unsolved problems in fundamental science and technology.”

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