Pentagon partners with major AI companies after Anthropic ban

The Pentagon announced an agreement Friday with eight leading technology companies to use their artificial intelligence tools across its classified networks, a list that included a notable absence: Anthropic.

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The companies involved in the deal include Sam Altman’s Open AI, Elon Musks’s SpaceX, leading chipmaker Nvidia, Larry Ellison’s Oracle, Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Reflection.

But the Trump administration cut out Anthropic, having blacklisted the company after it insisted the Pentagon include certain safety measures to guide the use of its AI technology in warfare. The company has since been excluded from Defense Department contracts but has been allowed to continue working with other government agencies while it fights the administration’s ban in the courts.

The Pentagon’s new partnership with Anthropic’s biggest competitors means the company will not be able to tap into the same coveted federal contract revenue streams. AI companies have been vying for defense contracts since last year’s passage of President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending bill gave the Pentagon a large pool of money to spend on AI innovation.

Integrating AI into the Defense Department’s classified networks will “streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” the Pentagon wrote in a news release announcing the partnerships.

“Whatever guardrails, whatever principles they want to develop against has to be consistent with our values, our mandate, our restrictions even,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s new technology chief and former Uber executive, said while speaking about the relationship between the Pentagon and the AI companies in an interview Friday on CNBC.

Earlier this year, Trump ordered the federal government to cut ties with Anthropic, and the Pentagon formally designated the company a “supply-chain risk” to national security — a serious designation typically reserved for companies with ties to America’s foreign adversaries. The company drew the ire of the administration after it refused to allow the Pentagon to use its Claude AI model for autonomous lethal warfare and the mass surveillance of Americans, citing safety and responsibility concerns. 

Micheal’s interview came shortly after the Pentagon announced the partnerships, but the companies involved have been largely silent about their new contracts. Open AI, SpaceX and Anthropic did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.