By Stacy Robinson

The Pentagon has entered into an alliance with seven leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies, the Department of War announced on May 1.

“These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare,” the department said in a statement.

SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Oracle have all been tapped to provide AI support for the government’s “classified networks for lawful operational use,” the department said.

“As mandated by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, the Department will continue to envelop our warfighters with advanced AI to meet the unprecedented emerging threats of tomorrow and to strengthen our Arsenal of Freedom,” the Pentagon said.

The companies are slated to provide resources and support for the military’s network environments at Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7). IL6 means classified information designated up to “Secret.” While IL7 has not been publicly defined in the same way by the Pentagon, an April 13 sources sought notice from the Defense Information Systems Agency defines it as “Top-Secret.”

More than 1.3 million Department of War employees have already used the Pentagon’s own official platform, GenAI.mil, the department said.

The announcement was made after the Trump administration cut ties with AI startup Anthropic and its model “Claude” in March, following the company’s refusal to authorize its use for autonomous warfare or mass surveillance.

The administration canceled Anthropic’s contracts and designated the company a “supply-chain risk.”

The designation—under a federal law designed to protect military systems from foreign sabotage—functions as a blacklist, preventing it from doing business with the federal government and its contractors.

Pages from the Anthropic website and the company’s logos are displayed on a computer screen in New York on Feb. 26, 2026. AP Photo/Patrick Sison

Anthropic sued the federal government to prevent that designation from taking effect, but the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled on April 8 that the government can label Anthropic as a risk until the litigation plays out.

Although Anthropic was excluded from the list of current partners, there may still be a chance for future government business.

“They came to the White House a few days ago, and we had some very good talks with them, and I think they’re shaping up,” Trump said during an interview on CNBC on April 21. “They’re very smart, and I think they can be of great use.”

The alliance comes at a time when the United States is sprinting to outpace China in the development and integration of AI tools.

“Make no mistake, we are in an AI war against China, and we must win the race,” Tyler Saltsman, founder of EdgeRunner AI, told The Epoch Times earlier this year.

He said that if China’s AI models and hardware dominate the market, it could lead the U.S. to become dependent on that nation for critical technology.

Matthew Vadum and Autumn Spredemann contributed to this report.