OpenAI is partnering with the US government to make its leading frontier models available to federal employees. Under the agreement, federal agencies can access OpenAI’s models for $1 for the next year, per a Wednesday announcement from the company and the General Services Administration (GSA).
The partnership is the culmination of months of effort on the part of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other OpenAI executives, who have been cozying up to the Trump administration since before President Donald Trump retook the White House in January.
Since at least May of this year, high-ranking OpenAI employees have been meeting with the General Services Administration and other government agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration, to promote the company’s tools, according to documents obtained by WIRED.
On July 23, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap and other OpenAI executives were invited to a private after party hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum in Washington, DC. A number of government employees involved in various AI policy efforts, including DOGE associates Akash Bobba and Edward Coristine, were also on the invite list, per an invitation obtained by WIRED.
It is not known whether Lightcap attended the festivities. Alexandr Wang, the head of Meta Superintelligence Labs, and representatives from Palantir were also invited.
On Tuesday, the GSA announced that it was adding three new AI models—Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT—to its federal purchasing list, opening the door for government agencies to use these tools. The move was framed as furthering Trump’s AI Action Plan, which called for speeding up AI innovation in the US.
The same day, OpenAI launched two open-weight models—the company’s first such release since 2019. The models can be run locally and customized for specific use cases, potentially allowing OpenAI to partner with government agencies that require high levels of data security.
Under Elon Musk, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) accelerated government AI efforts, including by launching an AI chatbot called GSAi. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a DOGE operative has been using AI tools to rewrite agency regulations.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment by WIRED. The GSA did not respond on the record prior to publication.
American AI giants have shown a growing interest in working with the US government in recent months. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, the president announced a major new datacenter infrastructure project from OpenAI called Stargate. Altman stood beside the president as he announced the new venture at the White House. In May, Altman and other AI executives also accompanied Trump on a trip to the Middle East, where they announced a number of business deals seemingly designed to further US foreign policy interests.
Government agencies have huge quantities of data that might potentially be valuable for AI companies. (OpenAI says that ChatGPT will not use interactions with federal employees as training data.) US government departments looking to modernize their operations may see generative AI as a way to upgrade systems and improve efficiencies. Agencies like the Department of Defense are huge potential customers, too. Trump’s proposed budget for the Department of Defense for the 2026 fiscal year is $1.01 trillion, a 13.4 percent increase.
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