The U.S. Department of Defense has selected four leading artificial-intelligence developers—OpenAI, Alphabet’s Google, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI—for contracts worth up to $200 million apiece. Announced by the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, the agreements carry a combined ceiling of $800 million if all options are exercised. The awards aim to speed the military’s adoption of so-called “agentic AI,” systems that can plan and execute tasks with minimal human oversight. The CDAO said the companies will help create AI workflows for a range of defense mission areas, from back-office operations to field applications, using commercially available technology rather than bespoke military systems. Each firm is building tailored government offerings alongside the contracts. xAI launched “Grok for Government,” OpenAI recently unveiled “OpenAI for Government,” and Google Public Sector will provide access to its cloud-based Tensor Processing Units. The initiative underscores the Pentagon’s broader shift toward tapping commercial AI breakthroughs to advance national-security capabilities.