U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Monday that Elon Musk’s xAI platform, Grok, will be integrated into U.S. military networks as part of what he called a sweeping “AI acceleration strategy,” framing the move as a shift away from slower, outdated approaches as global competition intensifies.
Speaking during a visit to a SpaceX facility at an event titled “Arsenal of Freedom Stop at SpaceX Facility,” Hegseth argued the Pentagon must move faster to keep pace with rivals.
“In modern warfare, the fastest innovator and iterater will be the winner. And no one can out-innovate an American entrepreneur who has been liberated from constraints of stifling bureaucracy. That old era ends today,” Hegseth said.
“We are done running a peacetime science fair while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.”
Hegseth said the xAI partnership is the next step under the Department of Defense’s GenAI.mil initiative.
“But today, we’re excited to announce the next frontier AI model company to join GenAI.mil, and that is Grok from xAI, which will go live later this month,” he said.
“So I want to thank you, Elon, and your incredible team for leaning forward with us on these as well. Very soon, we’ll have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department—long overdue.”
The announcement fits into Hegseth’s broader push to reshape the military around speed and operational focus, with an emphasis on cutting bureaucratic delays as the U.S. responds to advances from adversaries including China and Russia.
He described the rollout of advanced AI tools like Grok as central to modernizing Pentagon networks—and to maintaining a decisive edge as emerging technologies play a growing role in national defense.
