For Grok & Co: Pentagon promises AI firms hundreds of millions of US dollars

The Pentagon has signed contracts with four AI companies to use and test their technology. There is also money for Grok 4 from xAI.

(Image: Ivan Cholakov/Shutterstock.com)

Jul 15, 2025 at 7:29 am CEST

2 min. read

By

Martin Holland

The US Department of Defense has signed contracts with Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI for the development of agentic AI workflows, each of which could receive up to 200 million US dollars. In parallel, xAI has unveiled an AI program designed specifically for government agencies to ensure that government employees have the “best tools and technologies”. Both events come just a week after Elon Musk's company's new AI model caused a stir with anti-Semitic outbursts and repeatedly referred to itself as “MechaHitler”. As a result, the chatbot on the short messaging service X was shut down for several days.

AI for the military command

The Pentagon's head of AI now justifies the contracts with the four AI companies with the aim of maintaining a strategic advantage over opponents. The acquisition of AI technology fundamentally changes the Pentagon's ability to support combatants. The aim of the contracts is to bring the best AI technology to the various levels of command. Research into the potential applications and risks of the latest AI models is also planned. In turn, this should enable the AI companies themselves to understand and address requirements from a national security perspective.

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Elon Musk's AI company xAI is now calling the new offering for US government agencies “Grok for Government”. The aim is to give local, federal, and state agencies the opportunity to access the latest AI technology. Here, xAI is referring to Grok 4, the launch of which was accompanied by massive problems last week. The authorities will be able to acquire the technology directly from a government agency, as well as special tools for research, for example. With this and the Pentagon's contracts, the links between US authorities and the largest AI companies are now becoming even closer.