Sam Altmans OpenAI lands $200M deal with US military to address national security challenges

Sam Altman’s OpenAI has secured a $200 million contract to provide artificial intelligence support to the US Defense Department.Work on the contract will be primarily performed in Washington DC and is expected to run through July 2026.The deal was announced months after OpenAI first revealed that it would collaborate with tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey’s defense firm Anduril to develop AI for “national security missions.”“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Pentagon said in a statement.The ChatGPT maker’s move to work with the US military marked a departure from the company’s earlier position.

The company’s terms of service once contained language stating that its AI products were prohibited for use in “military and warfare” circumstances – but the wording was removed last year.In a blog post alongside the Pentagon’s announcement, Altman’s firm said it was “launching OpenAI for Government, a new initiative focused on bringing our most advanced AI tools to public servants across the United States.”“Our goal is to unlock AI solutions that enhance the capabilities of government workers, help them cut down on the red tape and paperwork, and let them do more of what they come to work each day to do: serve the American people,” the blog post said.OpenAI described its $200 million deal with the Pentagon as a “pilot program” meant to “help the Defense Department identify and prototype how frontier AI can transform its administrative operations, from improving how service members and their families get health care, to streamlining how they look at program and acquisition data, to supporting proactive cyber defense.”Altman had previously appeared alongside President Trump in January to promote OpenAI’s role in a $500 billion “Stargate” project to build out AI data centers and other inf...