The U.S. Department of War has announced a new agreement with xAI, the startup founded by Elon Musk, to integrate its Grok chatbot into military systems.
The move builds on a $200 million Pentagon deal signed earlier this year to develop an “AI arsenal” aimed at addressing national security challenges. From early 2026, Grok will be available to both military and civilian personnel to process controlled but unclassified data under Impact Level 5 (IL5) standards.
The partnership has renewed concerns over Grok’s past controversies and the level of access Musk’s companies could gain to sensitive government information. In September, Elizabeth Warren warned Secretary of War Pete Hegseth that Grok had produced misinformation and offensive, antisemitic content.
Despite criticism, the Department said the agreement supports its push to scale AI across its 3 million-strong workforce, turning AI into a routine operational tool. The deal also grants department users access to Musk’s platform X for “real-time global insights.”
xAI stated the partnership would demonstrate Grok’s role in critical mission use cases and expand a suite of government-optimized AI models to support operational workloads.