Pentagon strikes deals with 7 Big Tech companies after shunning Anthropic
By Jordan Valinsky, CNN
New York (CNN) — The Department of Defense announced Friday an agreement with seven major technology companies to use their artificial intelligence tools in its classified networks.
Not included: Anthropic, which the Trump administration has blacklisted over Anthropic’s insistence that the Pentagon include certain safety guardrails for the government’s use of AI in warfare. But the White House reopened discussions with Anthropic in recent weeks after the company made significant announcements about several technology breakthroughs.
The companies involved in the deal: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon Web Services and Reflection. The Pentagon has existing AI contracts with several companies, including Palantir and OpenAI.
Signing so many of Anthropic’s competitors could give the Trump administration some leverage. Anthropic is missing out on substantial revenue that its competitors have access to. Last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act included a large sum of money for the Pentagon to spend on AI and offensive cyber operations. Tech companies have been jostling for that money.
The companies’ AI tools will be used for “lawful operational use,” the Pentagon said, and the new agreements will transform the military as an “AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare.”
The Pentagon also pointed to the success of its GenAI.mil platform, saying 1.3 million DoD personnel have used the service.
Until recently, Anthropic’s Claude was the only AI model available in the Pentagon’s classified network. But President Donald Trump announced the administration would sever ties with the company after Anthropic refused to back down on terms that would allow the military to use Claude for “all lawful purposes,” including autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.
The Pentagon declared Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” a label only used in the past for companies associated with foreign adversaries. It could effectively blacklisted Anthropic from the government. Anthropic sued the Trump administration in response, and a federal judge in California last month blocked the government’s effort.
But Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei visited the White House last month for a meeting with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles after Anthropic unveiled its Mythos tool that can identify cybersecurity threats – but also present a roadmap for hackers to attack companies or the government.
CNN’s Hadas Gold and Sean Lyngaas contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
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