US Defense Awards $200M AI Contracts to Tech Giants

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded contracts worth up to $200 million each to OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Elon Musk's xAI to accelerate the adoption of advanced AI technologies for national security. These agreements, managed by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, are focused on developing agentic AI workflows to support warfighters and strategic defense operations. xAI has also launched 'Grok for Government,' making its latest AI models, including Grok 4, available to federal, state, and local agencies. The contracts highlight the growing collaboration between top AI firms and U.S. defense, amidst concerns about competitive fairness and regulatory oversight in federal AI contracting. This initiative follows recent White House efforts to expand AI use and President Trump's revocation of a Biden-era executive order that had imposed stricter AI risk controls. The deals come as xAI faces scrutiny for controversial outputs from its Grok chatbot, prompting public apologies and technical corrections.