OpenAI signs deal with US Department of War to deploy AI models

OpenAI has reached an agreement with the United States Department of War to deploy its artificial intelligence models within the department’s classified network.

The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, announced this on Saturday via a on his X handle.

Altman described the deal as the culmination of discussions centred on safety, governance and responsible use of advanced AI systems in sensitive environments.

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This development follows OpenAI’s $110 billion funding round, valuing the company at a pre-money valuation of $730 billion.

**What Altman is saying **

According to the OpenAI CEO, the Department of War demonstrated what he called “a deep respect for safety” and a willingness to partner in achieving the best possible outcome.

The agreement allows OpenAI’s models to be used within secure government systems, subject to specific guardrails and technical constraints.

• “AI safety and wide distribution of benefits are the core of our mission. 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,” Altman said.

The CEO added that OpenAI will build technical controls to ensure its models “behave as they should” within the classified environment. As part of that process, the company will deploy field deployment engineers to support implementation and oversight.

In addition, OpenAI confirmed that the models will run exclusively on cloud networks, rather than on local or edge infrastructure, a move aimed at maintaining tighter security and operational control.

**Get up to speed **

On Friday, the Trump administration handed down back-to-back directives that threaten to curb growth for one of the country’s most successful artificial intelligence firms, Anthropic.

First, President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s software, which has become popular, particularly as a programming assistant.

Shortly after, the Pentagon declared the AI developer a supply-chain risk — a designation typically reserved for companies from countries the US views as adversaries.

The moves, which followed a tense showdown between the San Francisco-based startup and the Pentagon over AI safeguards, aim not only to cut off Anthropic’s sales from the US government but also from numerous other firms.

According to Bloomberg, OpenAI declined to comment on whether the firm’s services for the department would replace the work previously done by Anthropic.

**What you should know **

With its new $110 billion fund, OpenAI is planning to accelerate the deployment of advanced AI tools across its platform.

• The company also noted that the funding comes alongside strategic partnerships with Amazon and NVIDIA.
• OpenAI disclosed that products like Codex, its AI‑powered coding agent used to write, edit, review, and ship software code, have seen weekly users more than triple to 1.6 million since the start of the year.
• ChatGPT now serves over 900 million weekly active users, including more than 50 million paying subscribers.

More than 9 million paying business users rely on ChatGPT for work, while startups, enterprises, and governments use the platform to transform how their products and services are designed, delivered, and managed.