Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, welcomes Elon Musk to the Pentagon on March 21, 2025. The artificial intelligence company launched by Musk is among the four recipients of $200 million contracts with the Pentagon to develop and integrate AI tools across the military. ( Madelyn Keech/U.S. Air Force)
A company launched by Elon Musk is among the four recipients of newly awarded Pentagon contracts of $200 million apiece to develop and integrate artificial intelligence tools for use in the U.S. military.
The partnerships are meant to bring cutting-edge AI into warfare and improve an assortment of Defense Department systems, according to a statement Monday by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office at the Pentagon.
Musk’s xAI was selected along with Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, the statement said.
“The adoption of AI is transforming the department’s ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries,” Chief Digital and AI Officer Doug Matty said in the statement.
The contract awards come a week after Musk received widespread criticism when the latest version of xAI’s chatbot, Grok, began generating antisemitic posts on X, the social media site also owned by Musk.
The posts, which included praise of Adolf Hitler, were removed and Musk acknowledged that the model was too easily manipulated by users. He said the problem had been addressed.
The Pentagon contract is part of a bigger rollout of what xAI is calling Grok for Government, opening up AI tools to all levels of the public sector.
In addition to the $200 million contract, xAI’s products are now available for purchase via the General Services Administration schedule, which allows every federal government department, agency or office to access xAI products.
Grok for Government will help users “accelerate America,” xAI said in a statement, “from making everyday government services faster and more efficient to using AI to address unsolved problems in fundamental science and technology.”
The federal government already has several contracts with Musk’s space development company SpaceX valued at a combined $22 billion, according to Reuters.
They include deals to provide Starlink internet services in Ukraine and launch sensitive intelligence satellites into space.
