The U.S. Department of Defense is testing its own artificial-intelligence software in an effort to gain greater negotiating leverage over commercial suppliers such as Palantir Technologies, according to a report by The Information published on 28 July. The internal trials are designed to assess whether in-house or alternative platforms can match the data-analysis capabilities that Palantir currently provides under multiyear defense contracts. Greater optionality could allow the Pentagon to reduce reliance on a single vendor when awarding future deals, the report said. Separately, Microsoft is expanding its suite of AI tools in a bid to attract enterprise customers away from Salesforce and other competitors, the publication added, underscoring intensifying competition among large technology firms for government and corporate AI budgets.