The U.S. Department of Defense announced Friday that it has established partnerships with eight prominent technology companies, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, and Reflection. These agreements authorize the use of their advanced artificial intelligence technologies within classified military networks.
As detailed in the announcement, these systems will operate at Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7), which are security standards set by the Department of Defense for handling classified data. IL6 applies to secret-level information, while IL7 is reserved for highly restricted national security data requiring strict access controls, network isolation, and clearance protocols.
“These agreements will expedite our transformation into an AI-first military force, enhancing our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority in all warfare domains,” stated the Pentagon.
The Department of Defense emphasized that these partnerships build on existing federal investments in these firms, which are already engaged with contracts related to cloud computing, data infrastructure, and artificial intelligence. Although the announcement did not reveal the contract values, the 2026 budget request for the Department of Defense totals $961.6 billion, with $33.7 billion allocated for science and technology and autonomous systems.
This initiative supports the GenAI.mil platform, launched in December with Google Gemini’s help, which has already seen over 1.3 million personnel generating tens of millions of prompts and deploying hundreds of thousands of AI agents within five months. The system is designed to leverage multiple AI providers rather than depend on a single vendor.
“We believe those defending the United States should have access to the best tools available,” an OpenAI spokesperson commented in a statement to Decrypt.
An Amazon Web Services spokesperson indicated that AWS plans to expand its support for U.S. military operations as the Pentagon advances AI deployment within classified networks.
“For over a decade, AWS has supported our nation’s military by providing superior technology at great value,” said Tim Barrett, an AWS spokesperson speaking to Decrypt. “We are eager to continue aiding the Department of Defense in their modernization efforts and developing AI solutions for critical missions.”
The agreements align with a larger strategy to integrate AI across military operations. In March 2025, the Pentagon contracted Scale AI to develop the Thunderforge planning system and later collaborated with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT and xAI to include its Grok AI model in July 2025.
Last month, a deal was finalized between the Department of Defense and Google for classified AI work. This followed reports that the NSA had started using Anthropic’s ClaudeMythoson on classified networks, despite an ongoing dispute with the company.
“As directed by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, we will continue to equip our warfighters with cutting-edge AI to address emerging threats and fortify our Arsenal of Freedom,” declared the Pentagon.
Responses from SpaceX, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google were not immediately available following Decrypt’s request for comments.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated post-publication to include a comment from OpenAI.