The US Department of Defense (DoD) has significantly expanded its central AI portal, GenAI.mil: alongside Google Gemini, DoD staff can now use OpenAI’s „ChatGPT Mil“ and „Grok for Government“ from xAI subsidiary Starshield. What stands out most is who is missing: Anthropic’s Claude.
Three models in one secured portal
GenAI.mil first launched in December 2025 with Gemini only. The portal is meant to give DoD personnel access to commercial frontier models without routing sensitive government data through ordinary consumer channels; it handles so-called controlled unclassified information (CUI). According to the Pentagon’s announcement, ChatGPT and Grok were added on 31 August 2026. TechCrunch reports the portal has already onboarded „more than 1.7 million“ of roughly three million service members, civilian employees and contractors – earlier figures cited around 1.5 million for June. A DoD official told Defense One that Gemini is stronger for search and ChatGPT better suited to text work.
Why Claude is missing
Anthropic’s model is absent. According to reports, the Trump administration designated the company a „supply-chain risk“ in March 2026. As consistently described by CNBC, TechCrunch and DefenseScoop, the negotiations broke down over terms of use: Anthropic reportedly insisted on safeguards – no use for mass surveillance of US citizens and no fully autonomous weapons systems – while the Pentagon demanded unrestricted access „for all lawful purposes“. Both sides are said to have acknowledged that the breakdown was about contract terms, not concrete security risks.
A legal aftermath
The designation is legally contested. In late August 2026, according to CNBC, a court blocked the listing of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk. Critics point out that the underlying procurement rule (10 U.S.C. § 3252) applies only to national security systems and does not justify a blanket ban on doing business. Anthropic signed a Pentagon contract in 2025 and says Claude has been deployed across military and intelligence systems.
Sources: DefenseScoop, TechCrunch, Defense One, Just Security, CNBC.
