The US War Department on Friday signed artificial intelligence agreements with seven of the largest US technology and infrastructure companies to deploy boundary models on classified networks.
The contracts cover SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection AI, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services. It allows enterprise AI to operate within Impact Level 6 and Impact Level 7 environments for any lawful operational use.
Inside the War Department Artificial Intelligence Agreements
The department’s chief technology officer announced the package on May 1, calling it the latest step in building what War Department officials call “AI-first.” The IL6 and IL7 designations cover classified and top secret workloads, so the models will sit alongside sensitive intelligence and operational data.
“This is just the latest initiative in our mission to create the First Artificial Intelligence Warfare Department,” the official account of the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering said. male.
Officials said the spread of vendors was deliberate. By contracting with multiple U.S. providers, the department aims to avoid vendor lock-in and keep options open in open and closed markets Open source models.
The NVIDIA part includes the open source Nemotron familywhile Reflection AI, an Nvidia-backed startup founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, will provide additional open-weight systems.
Google introduces the Gemini family For any lawful government purpose, SpaceX is expected to contribute infrastructure associated with Grok’s xAI models.
Microsoft and AWS retain their roles As the backbone of the cloud and rollout infrastructure.
Domestic adoption is already heavy. Section The GenAI.mil platform has exceeded 1.3 million users and tens of millions of claims within five months of launch, according to the May 1 release.
Anthropy sits out after facing the railing
The list does not include Anthropy. Defense Minister Pete Hegseth described the company as a supply chain risk in February after Anthropic Refusal to remove restrictions On autonomous lethal weapons and mass domestic surveillance.
“We will not allow any company to dictate the terms of how operational decisions are made,” Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell said.Articulated.
A federal judge later blocked implementation of the ban, and The legal battle continues.
OpenAI has taken a narrower path than competitors. The company said its War Department deal maintains three commitments:
- Their models cannot be used for mass local surveillance,
- Autonomous weapons cannot be directed, and
- They will keep their safety barriers in place.
Other companies have accepted broader language of “for any lawful purpose” without those general exceptions.
The open source push sets the tone for what comes next
These deals fall under the department’s AI Acceleration Strategy, published earlier in 2026, which calls for the creation of modular open source architectures across warfighting, intelligence, and enterprise functions.
The strategy favors local vendors, transparent open weight options, and rapid prototyping over reliance on a closed model, officials said.
The next monitoring points will be models that show IL6 being deployed first and whether the guardrails deployed in OpenAI hold up once the scope of the workflow is sorted out.
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