OpenAI has secured a new agreement with the Pentagon to integrate its artificial intelligence tools into classified military systems, a development announced by CEO Sam Altman late Friday.
The deal was revealed just hours after the Trump administration ordered all federal agencies to halt the use of Anthropic’s AI products and designated the company a “supply chain risk.”
Altman announced President Donald Trump’s directive barring federal agencies from using Anthropic’s systems.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth simultaneously stated that Anthropic would be labeled a supply chain concern after the company declined to accept Pentagon-requested conditions tied to the deployment of its AI in autonomous weapons and mass surveillance applications involving US citizens.
In his statement on X, Altman indicated that OpenAI’s agreement with the Pentagon incorporates safety conditions similar to those Anthropic had reportedly sought.
He wrote, “Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems.
The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.” He added, “We also will build technical safeguards to ensure our models behave as they should, which the (Department of War) also wanted.”
Anthropic’s AI products
Altman further stated that OpenAI plans to deploy engineers directly to the Pentagon to oversee implementation and ensure compliance with safety standards.
“We are asking the DoW to offer these same terms to all AI companies, which, in our opinion, we think everyone should be willing to accept. We have expressed our strong desire to see things de-escalate away from legal and governmental actions and towards reasonable agreements,” he said.
Anthropic announced it intends to legally challenge the supply chain risk designation. Such a classification is typically reserved for companies with direct ties to foreign adversaries. If enforced, the label would require military contractors to demonstrate that none of their defense-related work involves Anthropic’s technology.
At present, it remains unclear what distinguishes OpenAI’s agreement from the terms Anthropic declined. CNN has sought clarification from both the Pentagon and OpenAI. Defense Secretary Hegseth shared Altman’s announcement on X.
Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, who oversees technology initiatives at the Pentagon, wrote in a separate post, “When it comes to matters of life and death for our warfighters, having a reliable and steady partner that engages in good faith makes all the difference as we enter into the AI Age.”
