Elon Musk’s xAI partners with Pentagon to implement AI in US military systems

Key Takeaways

• Elon Musk’s xAI will provide advanced AI systems to the US Department of War for both enterprise and mission-critical military applications.
• The partnership enables AI-powered tools for 3 million Department of War employees, with access to Grok models and real-time insights from the X platform.

The Department of War (DOW) is partnering with Elon Musk’s xAI to integrate its artificial intelligence suite into US defense and security operations, according to a Monday announcement.

Under a new deal with the DOW, xAI’s AI system, powered by the Grok models, will be added to GenAI.mil, the Pentagon’s internal AI platform. The expansion gives about three million military and civilian employees access to frontier-grade AI capabilities for defense applications.

Operating at Impact Level 5 (IL5), the new platform will allow the secure handling of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in real-world missions. It combines xAI’s models, research platform, and agentic tools into a unified system slated for launch in early 2026.

xAI is expanding beyond enterprise tools to support military personnel directly. The company stated that it will deliver government-optimized foundation models for classified operational workloads through its ongoing partnership with the DOW and other mission partners.

The latest development comes after the War Department, formerly known as the Department of Defense (DoD), awarded up to $200 million each to OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI in July to scale AI capabilities for military and government applications.