Openai Working with the U.S. government is making its leading border model available to federal employees. Under the agreement, federal agencies can offer OpenAI models for $1 next year, according to the company and the General Services Administration (GSA) announced Wednesday.
The partnership is the end of months of efforts by Openai CEO Sam Altman and other OpenAI executives who have been in the Trump administration since President Donald Trump re-withdrew from the White House in January.
According to documents obtained by Wired, senior 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 since at least May.
On July 23, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad LightCap and other OpenAI executives were invited to attend private parties after a party hosted by the Hill and Valley forum in Washington, D.C. According to Wired’s invitation, many government employees involved in various AI policy efforts, including Doge Associates Akash Bobba and Edward Coristine, are also on the invitation list.
It is not known whether LightCap has participated in the celebration. Alexandr Wang, head of Meta Super Smart Lab, also invited representatives from Palantir.
On Tuesday, GSA announced that it will add three new AI models to its federal purchase list, namely Claude of Humans, Gemini of Google and Chatgpt of Openai, opening the door to government agencies to use these tools. The move was framed as it promoted Trump’s AI action plan, which calls for accelerating AI innovation in the United States.
On the same day, Openai launched two open models – the company’s first release since 2019. These models can run locally and be customized for specific use cases, potentially allowing OpenAI to work with government agencies that require a high level of data security.
Under Elon Musk, the so-called Ministry of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has accelerated government AI efforts, including by launching an AI chatbot called GSAI. In the Department of Housing and Urban Development, doorman operators have been using AI tools to rewrite agency regulations.
Openai did not immediately respond to Wired’s request for comment. GSA did not respond in the record before it was released.
In recent months, U.S. AI giants have shown increasing interest in working with the U.S. government. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, the president announced a major new data center infrastructure project called Stargate. Altman announced that he was standing next to the president when the White House announced a new career. In May, Altman and other AI executives also accompanied Trump on a trip to the Middle East, where they announced many business deals that seemed to be aimed at furthering the interests of the U.S. foreign policy.
Government agencies have a lot of data that may be valuable to AI companies. (Openai said Chatgpt won’t use interactions with federal employees as training data.) U.S. government departments that want to modernize their operations may see generative AI as a way to upgrade systems and improve efficiency. Organizations like the Ministry of Defense are also huge potential customers. Trump’s proposed budget for the Defense Department in fiscal year 2026 was $1.01 trillion, an increase of 13.4%.
