The Pentagon on Friday announced agreements with seven leading artificial intelligence companies to deploy their technology on classified military networks, a move that pointedly excludes Anthropic amid its ongoing dispute with the Defense Department.
SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services will be integrated into the Defense Department’s most sensitive classified systems, used for mission planning, weapons targeting and other purposes, according to a statement.
The statement did not mention Anthropic, which is caught up in a fight with the Pentagon over guardrails governing how the military could use its AI tools.
The US military currently uses Anthropic’s AI but is weaning itself from it after the company objected to its technology being used for mass domestic surveillance or to directly control lethal autonomous weapons.
The Pentagon subsequently labeled the AI startup a supply-chain risk earlier this year, barring its use by the US military and its contractors.
In February, Trump instructed the government to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s technology — a designation typically reserved for organizations from unfriendly foreign countries.
“What we’ve learned…is that it’s irresponsible to be reliant on any one partner,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s de facto chief technology officer, told CNBC.
Michael added that the deals included a mix of closed and open-source models, with a source familiar with the matter telling AFP that the latter would be provided by Nvidia and AI firm Reflection.
Open-source models, which can be run without ongoing licensing fees or vendor access, offer the Pentagon greater operational flexibility and reduce dependence on any single commercial provider.
Anthropic’s AI model, Claude, — which is not open source — had been the only one authorized for use in classified military operations and remains in use. The company is now fighting the Pentagon punitive measures in court.
– ‘Augment decision-making’ –
Tensions had shown signs of easing ahead of Friday’s announcement. Trump said last week he thought the administration would get along with Anthropic “just fine,” after CEO Dario Amodei visited the White House for talks that a spokesperson described as “productive and constructive.”
Friday’s announcement framed the deals with Anthropic’s rivals as central to the Trump administration’s push to build what it called an “AI-first fighting force.”
The integrations would “streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making,” it said.
The Pentagon said its GenAI.mil platform — described as its official AI system — had already been used by more than 1.3 million department personnel, generating tens of millions of prompts and deploying hundreds of thousands of agents in five months.
More than 600 Google employees demanded Monday that the company reject the Pentagon deal.
In 2018, an employee movement successfully pushed Google to abandon Project Maven, a Pentagon program to integrate AI into drone operations.
In recent years the company has embarked on a strategy shift, steadily rebuilding its military business and competing with rivals for defense contracts.
Project Maven is now led by AI firm Palantir and has since evolved into an AI-assisted targeting and battlefield management system that has vastly accelerated the kill chain — the process from initial detection to destruction.
During Operation Epic Fury against Iran, Maven reportedly enabled the processing of more than 1,000 targets within the first 24 hours.
An AWS spokesperson said the company was committed to supporting the military and looked forward to helping the Defense Department modernize with AI.
The other companies did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
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