Musk’s xAI and OpenAI Are Now Defense Contractors and Weapons Vendors
Is xAI building defense systems with Chinese risk baked in?
Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, is now building military technology for the U.S. government under a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million.
The billionaire’s bombshell résumé enhancement follows criticisms of his leadership over the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where Palantir alumni under his watch helped steer a CIA-funded surveillance firm into the center of a sweeping plan to consolidate federal data on Americans.
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“Today, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) announced contract awards to leading U.S. frontier AI companies to accelerate Department of Defense (DoD) adoption of advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges,” the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) said in a Monday press release. “Frontier AI companies lead development of the most advanced AI models and technologies, conduct insightful research into the use of frontier AI, and pioneer efforts to address both the potential benefits and risks of frontier AI technologies.”
That includes Musk’s ‘Grok’ chatbot, which will now be deployed across the U.S. military’s digital infrastructure to support battlefield, intelligence, and enterprise operations.
Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI—alongside xAI—are now officially U.S. defense contractors, each awarded a $200 million ceiling contract to help the Pentagon “broaden DoD use of and experience in frontier AI capabilities” across military mission areas.
“The awards to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI – each with a $200M ceiling – will enable the Department to leverage the technology and talent of U.S. frontier AI companies to develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas. Establishing these partnerships will broaden DoD use of and experience in frontier AI capabilities and increase the ability of these companies to understand and address critical national security needs with the most advanced AI capabilities U.S. industry has to offer,” the press release reads.
The DoD says these tools will be used to develop “agentic AI workflows” as part of “Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain.”
“Leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems,” said CDAO Chief Dr. Doug Matty.
The contract makes xAI an official weapons vendor.
The Department is integrating frontier AI models—including Grok—into federal platforms like Advana, Maven Smart System, Edge Data Mesh nodes, and the Army’s Enterprise LLM Workspace, which now delivers generative AI tools to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and Combatant Commands.
“Establishing these partnerships will broaden DoD use of and experience in frontier AI capabilities and increase the ability of these companies to understand and address critical national security needs,” the Pentagon states.
The timing is intriguing.
Just months before landing the contract, Musk’s xAI secured $6 billion in Series C funding, led in part by BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager and an official partner of the World Economic Forum.
As I previously reported:
“BlackRock Inc. has participated in a landmark $6 billion Series C financing round for Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, cementing the asset manager’s growing influence and strategic leverage over the company’s future direction.”
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has stated outright:
“At BlackRock, we are forcing behaviors.”
Now, Grok is being funded by BlackRock and certified by the Pentagon for national security use.
At the same time, Musk’s Tesla continues to rely on Chinese battery giant CATL—a company so tied to the Chinese Communist Party that Camp Lejeune, one of America’s largest Marine Corps bases, felt it was necessary to remove its energy storage systems over hacking concerns.
Duke Energy confirmed the removal was due to “possible network vulnerabilities arising from the batteries,” after warnings that CCP-linked hackers could exploit battery communications systems to trigger “surges and cuts in current to the electricity grid,” potentially causing a “cascading failure.”
CATL is not a minor supplier.
It is a core piece of Tesla’s U.S. supply chain, providing battery components, communications systems, and even installing equipment inside Tesla’s Nevada facility.
As of 2023, nearly 40% of Tesla’s battery material suppliers were Chinese companies, according to Nikkei Asia, a Japan-based English-language weekly news magazine.
Meanwhile, Musk’s xAI—funded by WEF partner BlackRock—is being embedded into Pentagon infrastructure for “Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain.”
This is not Musk slashing federal contracts, though he may do that elsewhere.
The situation is Musk selling AI to the military, while his companies rely on CCP-linked tech the U.S. Marine Corps just banned.
This is software for war built on potentially compromised hardware, as xAI isn’t just building AI but defense systems, too.
Is xAI building America’s defense system with Chinese risk baked in?
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If so thanks President Trump!! You allowed another enemy into the Country!! So much for anybody being held accountable!! Your administration is the gift that keeps on giving!! Is Obama or Brandon still in office, because it sure feels that way?
There is a reason Trump read the snake poem over and over!
Excellent bloodhound work, Jon!