OpenAI has taken a major step into US defence by striking an agreement with the United States Department of War to deploy its artificial intelligence models within the department’s classified networks.
On Saturday, CEO Sam Altman announced the deal via X, explaining that months of careful discussions focused on safety, governance, and responsible AI use in sensitive environments had led to this moment.
Safety And Deployment Measures
The announcement follows OpenAI’s $110 billion funding round, which valued the company at $730 billion pre-money.
Altman highlighted that the Department of War showed “a deep respect for safety” and actively partnered to achieve the best outcomes.
Consequently, OpenAI will operate its AI models on secure government systems, implement strict technical guardrails, and deploy field engineers to oversee the rollout and ensure models behave as intended.
Additionally, the company will run all processing on cloud networks to maintain tighter security.
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AI Competition And Growth
In contrast, the Trump administration recently targeted Anthropic.
First, federal agencies had to halt the use of Anthropic’s software, and then the Pentagon labelled the company a supply-chain risk—a designation usually reserved for foreign adversaries.
These moves limited Anthropic’s access to government and private-sector clients, which opened an opportunity for OpenAI to expand.
With its new funding, OpenAI plans to accelerate AI deployment across its platform while leveraging partnerships with Amazon and NVIDIA.
For example, Codex, the AI coding assistant, now serves 1.6 million weekly users.
Similarly, ChatGPT reaches over 900 million weekly active users, including more than 50 million paying subscribers.
As a result, businesses, startups, and governments increasingly rely on the platform to transform the design, delivery, and management of their products and services.
