The U.S. Department of Defense announced on Friday an agreement with seven major technology companies to deploy their artificial intelligence tools within its classified networks. The company notably absent from this partnership is Anthropic. The Trump administration had blacklisted the firm because it insisted the Pentagon implement specific safety measures before the military could use its AI in warfare. However, following several major technical breakthroughs announced by Anthropic, the White House has resumed dialogue with the company in recent weeks.
The participating companies include Elon Musk's SpaceX, ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Alphabet, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services, and Reflection. The Pentagon has previously awarded AI-related contracts to several firms, including Palantir and OpenAI.
By signing agreements with numerous competitors of Anthropic, the Trump administration may gain negotiating leverage, while Anthropic misses out on substantial revenue that could have gone to its rivals. Tech companies have been fiercely competing for a significant allocation of funds designated for artificial intelligence and offensive cyber warfare in the Pentagon's budget, authorized under last year's major defense spending bill.
The Pentagon stated that the AI tools from these companies will be used for "lawful military operations." The new agreements are intended to accelerate the transformation of the U.S. military into an "AI-first fighting force" and "enhance the ability of warfighters to maintain decision advantage across all warfighting domains."
The Pentagon also highlighted the significant success of its GenAI.mil platform, which is already being used by 1.3 million Department of Defense personnel.
Previously, Anthropic's Claude was the only AI model available on the Pentagon's classified networks. However, President Donald Trump announced that the administration would sever ties with the company because Anthropic refused to compromise and allow the military to use Claude for "all lawful purposes"—which includes autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
The Pentagon classified Anthropic as a "supply chain risk," a label typically reserved for companies linked to foreign adversarial nations. This action effectively placed Anthropic on a government blacklist. In response, Anthropic sued the Trump administration, and a federal judge in California halted the government's action last month.
Nevertheless, Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, visited the White House last month to meet with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, demonstrating the company's newly launched Mythos tool. This tool is capable of both identifying cybersecurity threats and providing hackers with a roadmap for attacking corporations or governments.
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