OpenAI has signed a $200 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop prototypes of advanced artificial intelligence systems for national security purposes, both military and administrative. This is OpenAI’s first official contract with the Pentagon.
The contract, signed with OpenAI’s subsidiary Public Sector LLC, will be mostly performed in Washington and surrounding counties. According to the announcement, OpenAI will create tools that will help transform government processes, from improving military access to healthcare to analyzing procurement data and strengthening cybersecurity.
The company's blog states that the contract is part of a new initiative, OpenAI for Government , which involves creating AI products for US government agencies. In particular, these are special models, support and access to the development roadmap. The initiative already has a solution called ChatGPT Gov.
OpenAI's collaboration with the Pentagon continues amid a general trend of IT companies being drawn into the defense sector. In particular, in December, Anduril received a $100 million contract from the Department of Defense. OpenAI's competitor, Anthropic, is working with Palantir and Amazon to provide its models to US government agencies. It is also known that Meta, together with Anduril, will create helmets, glasses and other devices with augmented and virtual reality technologies for the US Army.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a speech in April that the company was “proud” of its national security collaboration. He also appeared with Donald Trump at the White House in January to announce the launch of the massive Stargate project, a $500 billion AI infrastructure project in the United States.
While the contract is significant, it represents only a small portion of OpenAI’s total revenue, which exceeds $10 billion a year. In March, the company raised another $40 billion in investment, reaching a valuation of $300 billion.