The US military is rapidly expanding its AI adoption. The Department of War has integrated specialized, secure versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT and SpaceXAI's Grok into its GenAI.mil platform under contracts worth up to $200 million each, targeting routine and logistical workflows. Concurrently, the US Navy is shifting its procurement strategy to co-invest with private venture capital, prioritizing commercial tech acquisitions like Boeing's MQ-25 Stingray drone and Applied Intuition software to bypass traditional defense contractor delays.
Pentagon GenAI.mil platform expansion
- ▪US War Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing for an AI-first mentality, instructing Department of War personnel to incorporate AI into their daily workflows.
- ▪The GenAI.mil platform, which launched in December with access only to Google's Gemini, now has 1.7 million users among its 3 million-strong workforce.
- ▪The Department of War awarded contracts worth up to $200 million each to OpenAI and SpaceXAI for AI tools.
- ▪The US Department of War announced the addition of military versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT and SpaceXAI's Grok to its GenAI.mil platform.
ChatGPT Mil military features
- ▪ChatGPT Mil will keep data within its secure environment and will not use the data to train OpenAI's models.
- ▪ChatGPT Mil is provided through OpenAI for Government and is designed to handle Controlled Unclassified Information at Impact Level 5.
Grok government version capabilities
- ▪The military version of Grok, named Starshield AI's Grok for Government, provides access to deep thinking, inference, and reasoning settings including auto, fast, and expert.
- ▪Starshield AI's Grok for Government is designed to support operational tasks such as market research analysis for acquisition professionals and supply-chain management for logisticians.
Navy technology procurement strategy
- ▪The US Navy is shifting toward co-investment with private capital, preferring to buy from Series D through F companies rather than funding early-stage research.
- ▪The US Navy spends in the $150 billion range annually on total purchasing, according to Department of Navy Chief Technology Officer Justin Fanelli.
- ▪The US Navy is prioritizing five technology categories: applied AI, quantum information science, advanced networking, electromagnetic spectrum operations, and digital engineering.
Navy commercial technology acquisitions
- ▪The US Navy has acquired edge compute hardware from Armada, robotic inspection services from Gecko Robotics, and machine learning pipeline software from Domino Data Lab.
- ▪The US Navy replaced a years-delayed shipboard camera system supplied by an unnamed defense contractor with commercial cameras and software from Applied Intuition, according to Navy chief technology officer Justin Fanelli, who shared the example during a video call this week
- ▪The US Navy awarded a $562 million contract in September 2026 for the MQ-25 Stingray, an autonomous refueling drone built by Boeing.
Anthropic Claude contract dispute
- ▪Anthropic sued the US government after War Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a supply-chain risk and Donald Trump directed agencies to stop using its technology.
- ▪A judge ruled that the Department of War acted unlawfully by designating Anthropic a supply-chain risk following a dispute over restrictions on autonomous weapons and surveillance.
Debatable claims
- ▪The US military should adopt an AI-first operational strategy
- ▪The US military should exclude AI vendors that restrict combat applications of their technology
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