OpenAI Expands to US Defense via AWS, Replacing Anthropic

OpenAI has signed a new deal to sell access to its AI models to U.S. defense and government agencies through Amazon Web Services cloud unit for classified and unclassified work, the company said. The contract enables OpenAI to support the Pentagon under a deal secured late last month, after the agency dropped its previous AI provider, Anthropic. Anthropic had been a key U.S. defense AI supplier, working with Palantir and AWS to deploy its Claude models in classified military and intelligence systems. But its relationship with the Pentagon collapsed in February after Anthropic refused to allow unrestricted military use of its AI, particularly for domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons. The Pentagon then labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk and effectively cut it off from government work. OpenAI, which had previously focused on unclassified government use, has now secured a Pentagon contract to provide its models for classified operations. Following OpenAI is transition to a for-profit structure last fall, the company updated its agreement with Microsoft to allow partnerships with rival cloud providers in selling AI to national security customers, including the Pentagon. Primary source: Reuters