Sam Altman

Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI. In the immediate aftermath of the Trump administration’s ban on Anthropic, Altman moved quickly to secure OpenAI’s position as the Pentagon’s primary AI provider.

The Pentagon Deal

On February 27, 2026 — the same day Trump ordered all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic — Altman announced that OpenAI had struck a deal with the Defense Department to deploy its models on classified military networks. The timing was striking: Anthropic’s Claude had been the only AI model on classified networks, and OpenAI stepped in within hours.

The “Red Lines” Contradiction

In a memo to employees, Altman stated that OpenAI shared Anthropic’s “red lines” restricting military use of AI. This raised a central question: if both companies held the same safety positions, why did the Pentagon accommodate OpenAI but blacklist Anthropic? The discrepancy was never publicly explained.

”Rushed” and “Opportunistic”

Altman later acknowledged that the deal was “rushed” and “looked opportunistic” — a rare public concession that the optics of swooping in on Anthropic’s contracts within hours had damaged OpenAI’s credibility. Following backlash from employees, safety researchers, and civil liberties organizations, OpenAI revised several terms of its Pentagon agreement. The revisions were not made public in detail, but Altman framed them as ensuring OpenAI’s own safety commitments remained intact.

Context

Altman had previously navigated his own corporate governance crisis in 2023 when OpenAI’s board briefly fired him. His ability to secure the Pentagon deal so quickly after Anthropic’s ouster demonstrated both his political agility and OpenAI’s willingness to work within government demands. The departure of Caitlin Kalinowski, OpenAI’s hardware and robotics lead, over ethical concerns about the military deal underscored the internal cost of Altman’s speed.