The Defense Department will begin using Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot started by billionaire Elon Musk’s startup xAI.
In a post to Musk’s social media platform X, xAI unveiled Grok for Government, “a suite of products that make our frontier models available to United States Government customers.”
The deal marks a significant step for Musk’s AI. The South African tech billionaire has positioned his program as a direct competitor to OpenAI, which also reached a contract, in the defense and technology space.
The contract, which has a $200 million ceiling, details new project ideas including custom models for national security and critical science applications and custom AI-powered applications to accelerate use cases in health care, fundamental science and national security.
Grok, however, has also come under scrutiny in recent days. The AI chatbot posted antisemitic remarks last week after Musk announced changes would be made to the program.
X said it removed the posts and that the problem was not related to the chatbot’s underlying large language model.
The Defense Department did not offer a direct comment but directed POLITICO to its public information website. Anthropic and Google also received contracts.
The contract comes as the fallout between Trump and Musk continues. Musk, who spent nearly $300 million to help elect Trump and other Republicans in 2024, has been publicly critical of the president for his megabill and the national debt.
Musk also accused Trump and the Justice Department of withholding critical information related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail after being charged with sex trafficking. When Musk announced he would be starting his own third party, Trump said he had “gone off the rails.”
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