Sam Altman announces OpenAI agreement with Department of Defense to implement AI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on Friday that his company has reached an agreement with the Department of Defense to use its artificial intelligence models on a classified network, hours after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to remove Anthropic’s rival.

Altman said in a post on X that he had discussions with the Pentagon, which “showed a deep respect for security and a desire to work together to achieve the best possible outcome.”

“AI safety and the broad distribution of benefits are at the core of our work,” he said. “Two of our most important security principles are the prohibition of mass surveillance at home and the individual responsibility for the use of force, including autonomous weapons systems. The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we include them in our agreement.”

The deal came after Trump ordered all government agencies to stop using Anthropic technology, fueling disagreements over how artificial intelligence should be used in military operations.

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In a Truth Social post, Trump said agencies, including the Department of Defense, would have six months to complete.

“Anthropic better get their act together, ​​​​​​and be helpful during this time out, or I will use the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major social and criminal consequences to follow,” he wrote.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later said he directed the department to designate Anthropic a “national security threat.”

“Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic,” he added. “Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of the Army with its services for a period not to exceed six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service.”

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President Donald Trump has ordered federal agencies to phase out Anthropic technology as OpenAI gets a Pentagon deal. (Al Drago/Getty Images/Getty Images)

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei rejected earlier demands from the Department of Defense to allow its AI to be used for “all legitimate purposes,” citing concerns about “mass domestic surveillance” and “autonomous weapons.”

Anthropic told Fox News Digital on Friday that Hegseth’s designation of the company as a supply chain risk “follows months of discussions that have reached a point of contention over two of the things we’ve asked for in the legalization of our AI model, Claude: mass surveillance of Americans and autonomous weapons.”

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The Pentagon has moved forward with the OpenAI deal after designating Anthropic a potential asset sale risk. (Photos by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“We have not received direct communication from the Department of Defense or the White House regarding the status of our negotiations,” the company said.

Anthropic added that it “tried in good faith to reach an agreement with the Department of Defense,” supporting all legitimate national security uses of AI except for the two requests, which it said “have not affected a single government mission to date.”

The company also called the supply chain risk “an unprecedented action – reserved for America’s adversaries, which has never been made public in an American company.”

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Altman said that OpenAI will use additional safeguards to ensure that its models “behave as they should,” and that the company will only work on cloud networks.

“We’re asking the DoW to offer these same terms to all AI companies, which we think everyone should be willing to accept,” Altman continued. “We have expressed our strong desire to see things come down to legal and governmental action and reach appropriate agreements.”

Brie Stimson of FOX Business contributed to this report.