[Reported by Li Sa] According to multiple foreign media reports including the US-based Capitol Hill Newspaper and the BBC, the Pentagon announced on Monday (14th) local time that xAI, the artificial intelligence company owned by US entrepreneur Elon Musk, has signed a contract worth up to $200 million with the US Department of Defense to help promote the agency’s use of advanced artificial intelligence.
xAI is an artificial intelligence startup founded by Musk in 2023. According to the BBC, in addition to xAI, the Pentagon also announced similar contracts with Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, with a contract limit of $200 million for each company.
The Capitol Hill Newspaper also mentioned that on the same day as this announcement, xAI also released an artificial intelligence product called “Grok for Government” targeted at US government customers. xAI stated that this product will also be provided to other departments of the US federal government for purchase through the plan arranged by the US General Services Administration.
CBS, which also reported on this matter, stated that this announcement was made at a time when Musk was in “public rupture” with US President Trump, and after controversy surrounding xAI’s chatbot Grok due to its controversial remarks, such as praising Hitler. Following the incident, xAI apologized on July 12th local time for the controversial remarks made by its chatbot Grok, explaining that the incident was caused by the misuse of a discarded code segment after a system update, and the relevant code has been removed.