The U.S. Department of War announced Monday a collaboration with Elon Musk’s xAI to incorporate its advanced artificial intelligence technologies into national defense and security initiatives.
Under the agreement, xAI’s AI systems, built on the Grok models, will be deployed on GenAI.mil, the Pentagon’s proprietary AI platform. This move will extend cutting-edge AI functionalities to nearly three million U.S. military and civilian personnel for defense use.
By operating at Impact Level 5 (IL5), the new implementation supports the secure management of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), ensuring sensitive data remains protected during operational missions. The integration will bring together xAI’s suite of models, research resources, and agentic technologies into a comprehensive system expected to go live in early 2026.
The expansion marks xAI’s progression beyond enterprise applications, as the company prepares to tailor foundation models for government and classified use cases. In a statement, xAI confirmed it will develop models specifically optimized for the Department of War and other affiliated mission partners.
Monday’s announcement follows a decision by the War Department—formerly known as the Department of Defense—to award contracts of up to $200 million each to OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI last July. The contracts aim to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence within the military and government sectors, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Earlier this month, the Department of War announced the deployment of Google Cloud’s Gemini for Government as the first enterprise AI capability on its GenAI.mil platform. According to the Pentagon, Gemini for Government integrates “intelligent agentic workflows,” utilizing autonomous AI processes that make decisions and execute actions with minimal human oversight. This, the department said, will allow defense teams to explore and test these advanced capabilities more extensively.
