OpenAI has struck a partnership with Amazon Web Services that lets it deliver its AI models to U.S. defense and civilian agencies for both classified and unclassified work. The tie up builds on OpenAI’s recent agreement with the Pentagon, under which its models will run inside classified Defense Department networks and replace Anthropic after the Trump administration labeled that rival a “supply chain risk” over a dispute on AI use in mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.

Because AWS is already deeply embedded across federal systems and operates GovCloud and classified regions, the alliance gives OpenAI rapid access to agencies it could not easily serve on its own without building certified secure infrastructure. OpenAI says it will still choose which models are offered and can insist on extra safeguards for sensitive deployments, while the Pentagon deal explicitly includes technical and contractual limits meant to keep its models away from domestic mass surveillance and fully…