Elon Musk's xAI Offers Grok to US Government for 42 Cents, Sparking Controversy and Speculation

Elon Musk's xAI offers Grok to federal government for 42 cents | TechCrunch

Elon Musk's xAI has reached an agreement with the U.S. government's purchasing arm to sell its AI chatbot Grok to the federal government for under a dollar, pitting it against OpenAI and Anthropic. Under the agreement between xAI and the General Services Administration (GSA), federal agencies will be charged 42 cents to use xAI's chatbot Grok for a year and a half. OpenAI and Anthropic are offering their respective enterprise and government versions of ChatGPT and Claude for $1 for a year. The steep discount for federal agencies includes access to xAI engineers to help integrate the technology. The price point is either part of a running joke Musk has of using variations of 420, a marijuana reference, or a nod to one of Musk's favorite books, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," which references the number 42 as the answer to the meaning of life and the universe. xAI had been close to being approved as a GSA vendor earlier this year, but after Grok began generating antisemitic posts and calling itself "MechaHitler" on X, the planned partnership reportedly fell through. In late August, internal emails obtained by Wired revealed the White House had instructed the GSA to add xAI's Grok to the approved vendor list "ASAP." The company was also one of several AI firms, including Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, to be selected for a $200 million contract with the Pentagon. After President Donald Trump's inauguration, Musk formed and led the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in a rampant cost-cutting spree that has seen mixed results. During that time, Musk placed several aides at the GSA and other government agencies responsible for regulating or awarding government contracts in industries in which Musk has business.

Elon Musk's Grok AI to be used by US government at a price of 42 cents per agency -- Trump admin joining Meta, OpenAI in recent trend of AI govt contracts

The chatbot will be one of several available to workers in any opting-in federal agency. Grok, xAI's flagship chatbot, has become an officially sanctioned part of United States government operations. xAI and the United States inked a deal on Wednesday that guarantees the use of Grok across the federal government for $0.42 per agency, per the government's press release. The newly reskinned "Grok for Government", based on the Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast models, is available for all federal agencies effective immediately. The deal lasts for 18 months, terminating in March 2027, and is the longest AI contract yet signed by the government. Elon Musk's xAI also offers step-up models focused on higher-security classifications for unknown dollar amounts on a per-agency basis. At all levels of access to Grok for Government, xAI has pledged a "dedicated engineering team" and agency training programs to support governmental Grok and encourage its most efficient use at all times. Grok joins Meta, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic in the list of major AI companies that have been contracted by the U.S. government in the last week. The Government Services Administration (GSA) has been moving quickly with its "OneGov" initiative, based on securing a wide field of AI agents, chatbots, and tools for government workers to boost productivity and efficiency. "Widespread access to advanced AI models is essential to building the efficient, accountable government that taxpayers deserve," said Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum in the GSA press release. All other new OneGov LLM deals were also signed for incredibly low price tags, with Meta undercutting the bunch with a zero-dollar deal with the U.S. government. This partnership with Grok may come as a surprise for many reasons. Elon Musk, the personality and CEO behind xAI, had a very well-documented and highly contentious falling out with President Donald Trump. The pair began the year as fierce political allies, with Musk heading up Trump's "DOGE" office for governmental cuts, including those that effectively killed the Biden-era CHIPS and Science Act. But that relationship fractured as Musk stepped down from the government and resulting in a public fallout on social media. That xAI is signing deals with the U.S. government under the watch of both Trump and Musk signals to some that the rift between the two may be mending. Musk had begun to walk back his more abrasive takes on the president in recent months, and the pair have been seen together in public. GSA's acquisition of Grok as an option for federal workers has attracted its own share of controversy. Civil rights groups signed petitions requesting the Trump administration bar Grok from government, citing the occasional ideological bent of Grok's responses as a violation of Trump's own AI Action Plan. That plan requires AI used by government to be "neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas." Grok's X account famously began calling itself "MechaHitler" for a few days in July, accompanied by a slew of other posts praising the German Nazi Party during World War 2 and calling for anti-Semitic action. xAI has since "addressed these responses" and assures users they will not happen again.

GrokAI offers services to Feds for just $0.42

Elon Musk's AI appears to be more ideological than competitors Despite protest letters, concerns that it's biased and untrustworthy, model tweaks to appease its billionaire boss, and even a past incident where it called itself "MechaHitler," xAI's Grok is still being made available to government agencies for mere pennies. The GSA announced that it has awarded yet another OneGov discount contract on Thursday, this time to Elon Musk's xAI outfit. The agreement will see xAI offer Grok to federal agencies for just $0.42 per agency for a period of 18 months - six months longer than companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, who've all cut 12-month discount deals. "Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI's frontier AI is now unlocked for every federal agency empowering the U.S. Government to innovate faster and accomplish its mission more effectively than ever before," Musk said of the deal in the GSA's statement. The frontier models Musk is referring to appear to be Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast, according to the GSA. The agreement will also provide agencies that adopt Grok an "upgrade path" to FedRAMP- and DoD Impact Level-aligned versions of xAI's bots. Grok has yet to receive approval from FedRAMP, the federal government's certification program that attests cloud services are safe to use. The GSA's OneGov program, which began in April, aims to set government-wide terms and lower costs for software deals, enabling agencies to purchase new products without having to negotiate their own agreements. This being an Elon Musk operation, xAI is also naturally going to be "committing dedicated engineers to assist participating agencies" with their Grokification, potentially giving the billionaire another chance to scoop up some juicy government data for AI training, as some critics alleged happened during his time with DOGE, the Trump-established cost-gutting team Musk headed up before things went south between him and the President. The potential of using government data for training is not even the largest concern over Grok and xAI's getting access to federal systems, though. Grok took a goose-step to the right over the summer after Elon Musk grew unhappy with the fact that it wouldn't toe the line on his political views, despite some of Musk's claims (like the idea that left-wing activists commit more political violence, which multiple studies have disproven) being demonstrably false. Adjustments to Grok's algorithm in July took it from referencing academic studies and well-established data to producing responses more closely aligned with its owner's personal views and those of the X user base, as real-time data from the website is now Grok's primary reference. Grok's racist, conspiracy-riddled responses led public advocacy groups last month to send a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) demanding it declare Grok unfit for government use due to its "clear ideological judgement," which it said is in violation of Trump's own executive order that aimed to prevent "woke AI" from infiltrating federal agencies. It might not be woke, signatories argued, but Grok is definitely aligned with a political point of view. As the letter pointed out, Grok has called holocaust statistics into question, allowed itself to be used to generate non-consensual deepfakes, advanced unfounded claims of white genocide in South Africa, and even declared itself "MechaHitler." "This letter presents OMB an opportunity to provide guidance in alignment with the Trump Administration's professed goals of ensuring AI is objective and viewpoint neutral," Public Citizen big tech accountability advocate J.B. Branch told us in an email for our earlier story about the OMB letter. It appears no one listened. Branch, whom we spoke with today to follow up on the letter and the OneGov award, told us that he's not happy. This goes beyond disappointing - it's reckless, a safety issue - it's very concerning "This goes beyond disappointing - it's reckless, a safety issue - it's very concerning," Branch said in a phone call. Branch called attention to the fact that the White House's own science advisor, Michael Kratsios, said in a Senate hearing earlier this month that Grok's antisemitic and conspiratorial outputs are exactly the kind of behavior Trump's EO was meant to prevent. When asked whether antisemitism, hate speech, and conspiracy theories complied with Trump's EO, Kratsios described such statements as exactly the type of behavior the EO was designed to avoid. It appears his opinion doesn't amount to much, either. Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director at Demand Progress (a signatory on the OMB letter), expressed her own sentiments in a statement emailed to The Register today. "Words have lost all meaning when the same president who ordered the government to use only 'neutral, nonpartisan tools' grants every federal agency access to his former best friend's 'MechaHitler' AI," Peterson-Cassin said in her statement. "Grok, currently advertising its anime and furry chatbots, is less a useful AI tool and more a crude AI facsimile of Elon Musk that should have no place in official government business," Peterson-Cassin continued. "Today's announcement is yet another example of the president's actual AI action plan: handing the keys to the federal government to his Big Tech patrons." Neither the GSA nor xAI responded to questions for this story. ®

Musk's Grok AI Cleared for Use Across US Government Agencies

Elon Musk's xAI signed a new agreement to expand access to its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok to the federal government, the General Services Administration announced Thursday. Federal agencies will be able to purchase Grok AI models for $0.42 per organization, effective Thursday through March 2027, according to GSA, which is the government's central procurement arm. The pricing represents a discount to the $1 per year that Musk's arch-rival OpenAI is charging agencies for access to its ChatGPT product.

US strikes deal with Musk's xAI in sign of rapprochement with Trump

The Trump administration has signed a deal with Elon Musk's xAI that would allow the artificial intelligence tool to be used widely across government, signalling a thaw in relations between the president and his billionaire backer. Under an agreement announced on Thursday, xAI will offer its Grok chatbot to federal agencies for a nominal $0.42 fee per department, for a period of 18 months. The move follows similar deals struck by the government with Google's Gemini and Meta's Llama, as well as other leading AI models. Following Musk and Trump's public break-up earlier this summer, the president had suggested the US government should rethink its contracts with the billionaire's businesses, such as Tesla and SpaceX. In July, xAI was nonetheless among a quartet of AI companies awarded a contract by the US Department of Defense, worth a maximum of $200mn. But the General Services Administration, which is in charge of procurement across government, did not include xAI in the August launch of its USAi.gov platform that allows federal employees to experiment with artificial intelligence tools. It featured some of xAI's main competitors, including OpenAI, of which Musk is a fierce critic. Thursday's deal with the GSA comes just days after Musk, who had not been in Washington since May, met Trump in person at Sunday's memorial for conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The pair were pictured in a brief, but cordial exchange, during which they shook hands. "I thought it was nice, he came over, we had a little conversation," Trump said of the meeting. "We had a very good relationship but it was nice that he came over." Musk, who in June suggested that the president might be implicated in the scandal surrounding the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has since said he "went too far" in his criticism. He has also posted in support of some of the Trump administration's policies and pronouncements. The Tesla chief executive, who had floated the idea of starting a party to rival the Republicans, has been less vocal about his political ambitions in recent months, posting less about partisan issues and focusing more on the development of his businesses. A regulatory filing by Tesla earlier this month said the board had received "assurances that Musk's involvement with the political sphere would wind down in a timely manner". In a statement on Thursday, Musk hailed the agreement with the government as a boon for both xAI and the Trump administration. "xAI has the most powerful AI compute and most capable AI models in the world," he said. "Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI's frontier AI is now unlocked for every federal agency empowering the US government to innovate faster and accomplish its mission more effectively than ever before".

Musk's xAI to provide Grok chatbot to US federal agencies

Sept 25 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's xAI has struck a deal with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide the artificial intelligence startup's Grok chatbot to federal agencies, the government's procurement arm said on Thursday. The contract underscores Washington's push to expand the use of AI in government operations, while intensifying competition among leading developers of the booming technology for federal business. The agreement, effective through March 2027, allows agencies to buy Grok models for 42 cents per organization, compared with the $1 per year OpenAI charges for access to its ChatGPT service, GSA said. The contract covers Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast, which xAI describes as its most advanced reasoning models. The agency said xAI engineers would also assist agencies with implementation. Agencies will also have the option to upgrade to Grok enterprise subscriptions aligned with federal security standards, offering expanded features and higher usage limits. The deal is the latest under GSA's "OneGov Strategy," launched in April to standardize technology procurement and expand government use of AI. Other suppliers under the program include OpenAI, Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google and Anthropic. GSA has also approved Meta's Llama model for agency use earlier this week, making it available to federal customers at no cost. Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Elon Musk's Grok is cleared for federal government use

Federal agencies can purchase the wildly unpredictable AI model for the generous fee of $0.42. Despite Elon Musk and Donald Trump's very public spats and seemingly still ongoing feud, the White House has remained committed to the former's AI ambitions. And today, the General Services Administration (GSA) that it has reached an agreement with xAI that will allow it to buy Musk's Grok AI models for $0.42 per organization. As part of the Trump administration's OneGov procurement initiative, the deal with xAI will allow federal agencies access to the Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast advanced reasoning models. The 18-month contract is the longest OneGov AI procurement agreement to date. xAI its Grok for Government strategy earlier in the summer, which signalled its intention to provide the government with a suite of AI products, including custom models for national security, science and healthcare purposes. As well as opening its models for government use, xAI is also providing dedicated engineers to speed up the implementation of its AI tools for participating agencies, and will offer an "upgrade path" for expanded features and higher rate limits. Such access is a crucial part of Trump's , designed to position the US as the global leader in AI. And his administration doesn't appear to have been put off by Grok's bizarre behavior in recent months, such as its with far-right conspiracy theories regarding "white genocide" in South Africa, or its towards antisemitism. xAI is the latest in a line of AI companies to strike deals with the GSA. Back in August, began offering its Claude AI model to three branches of the US government for $1, following Gemini and xAI's arch rival OpenAI joining a list of approved vendors.

Elon Musk's xAI Signs Deal to Provide Grok Chatbot to US Agencies

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, on Thursday said it had secured a deal with the government that would allow federal agencies to use its chatbot for a nominal fee. Per the agreement between xAI and the General Services Administration, which handles many of the U.S. government's vendor contracts, federal agencies will be charged 42 cents in total to use xAI's chatbot Grok for a year and a half. Agencies that use Grok will receive help from xAI engineers to implement the company's tools. "We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to rapidly deploy A.I. throughout the government for the benefit of the country," Mr. Musk said in a statement. Mr. Musk's xAI has been working to catch up with its competitors in the A.I. race, something he has spent much of his time on recently. The company has been spending billions of dollars on the technology, although it is unclear how much money it is bringing in. Mr. Musk's company has struggled to recover from incidences this year when its chatbot went off the rails, including when Grok referred to itself as "MechaHitler" and falsely claimed there was a genocide against white people underway in South Africa, Mr. Musk's birthplace. Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence OpenAI to Join Tech Giants in Building 5 New Data Centers in U.S. Meta Ramps Up Spending on A.I. Politics With New Super PAC Nvidia to Buy $5 Billion Stake in Intel, Giving Rival a Lifeline Nvidia to Invest $100 Billion in OpenAI Since Leaving Washington, Elon Musk Has Been All In on His A.I. Company The New AirPods Can Translate Languages in Your Ears. This Is Profound. With the Em Dash, A.I. Embraces a Fading Tradition Finding God in the App Store A.I.'s Prophet of Doom Wants to Shut It All Down The company was among several A.I. firms selected for Pentagon contracts in July. In August, the federal government announced similar A.I. chatbot deals with OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, and Anthropic, the maker of Claude. Those two companies are charging agencies a $1 fee for use of their chatbots for a year. Mr. Musk's lower price is part of a long-running joke for the billionaire, who has often used variations of 420 during business transactions. The number 420 is a popular marijuana reference and may also refer to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," one of Mr. Musk's favorite books. In the book, 42 is the ambiguous answer a supercomputer provides when asked to explain the meaning of life and the universe. After Mr. Trump's inauguration in January, Mr. Musk immersed himself in a federal cost-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency. Trusted aides to the billionaire were embedded at the General Services Administration to aid in that effort. Mr. Musk left the project in June and has since focused on his companies. Negotiations for the xAI deal began in July and Mr. Musk was not directly involved in those conversations, said Josh Gruenbaum, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, the wing of the General Services Administration that handles procurement. "We are in a heated race for probably the most important technology ever invented," he added. "We have a very robust, battle-tested playbook to make sure these are safe use cases, secure use cases, for the federal government."

Trump admin to use Elon Musk's Grok chatbot for government business

Why it matters: The chatbot has faced criticism for being ideologically biased and lacking proper safety testing. Driving the news: "Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI's frontier AI is now unlocked for every federal agency," xAI cofounder and CEO Elon Musk said in a press release announcing the move. * Federal Acquisition Service commissioner Josh Gruenbaum said adopting Grok is "essential to building the efficient, accountable government that taxpayers deserve -- and to fulfilling President Trump's promise that America will win the global AI race." State of play: A coalition of over 30 consumer-focused groups in August called on Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to block Grok from being authorized for government business. * The group said that Grok was unfit for government use because it doesn't align with Trump's AI Action plan, which requires federal AI systems to be objective and be "neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas.'" * Grok has faced criticism multiple times this year, including for adding comments about a "white genocide" in South Africa in unrelated conversations and antisemitic memes. * Last year, it was caught spreading election misinformation during the 2024 campaign. Zoom in: Grok will be available for $0.42 per organization for 18 months, the longest contract for a OneGov AI agreement thus far. * xAI will also be providing the government with a dedicated engineering team to provide support and ensure "mission success." Zoom out: The Trump administration launched the OneGov Strategy in April to integrate AI tools into the government's workflow. * Trump's AI Action plan bolstered the strategy, allowing xAI and other companies such as Meta, Google and OpenAi to secure lucrative contracts with the government.

Elon Musk just sold Grok to U.S. government for 42 cents - and signals warmer ties with Trump | Fortune

Even the ugliest feuds with President Donald Trump seem to end with "the Art of the Deal." The U.S. government just inked a deal to put Elon Musk's Grok AI inside federal agencies for 42 cents per agency -- a bargain that the government called "unique" and could reset Musk's rocky relationship with Trump and scramble the fight over which models dominate Washington. It's the latest in a string of deals that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the agency responsible for technology procurement, has made with the top AI companies - Alphabet's Google; the ChatGPT maker, OpenAI; and Anthropic -- as part of its new initiative, the OneGov agreement. Each of these deals are short-term - to prevent one model dominating, the GSA said - but Grok's is the longest, with an 18- month contract. On Sept. 22, the GSA announced that it would be working with Meta to get free access to its Llama models, while OpenAI and Anthropic agreed to provide their models for $1, and Google charged 47 cents. Musk, according to the Wall Street Journal, picked 42 cents as a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction novel. It's hard to calculate how much money Musk is saving the government by offering the model at only 42 cents a pop. xAI's Grok 4 Fast is priced per output, and generally agencies might be on the hook for hefty API licencing fees. "We really like the notion of having strong competition and market tension between these models and these companies," Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. "When someone goes and updates their model with a cool feature, that only encourages the others to go do the same thing." The deal could be a sign that the turbulent Musk-Trump relationship is in a period of thawing. After breaking with Trump in June over tariffs and spending -- even calling for his impeachment -- Musk has become one of the president's most vocal critics. However, on Sunday, the two were spotted side by side at Charlie Kirk's memorial in Arizona, shaking hands and chatting for the first time since their public split. Now Musk is praising Trump's leadership in official press releases, saying xAI looks forward to "rapidly deploying AI throughout the government." Whether this is a fragile truce or a genuine thaw, the timing is striking: Musk is still struggling to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in the private market, but inside Washington, he just secured a coveted stamp of approval. "MechaHitler" in the government? Musk's deal with Washington comes on the heels of embarrassing stumbles for Grok itself. The chatbot has been caught spouting antisemitic comments, at one point dubbing itself "MechaHitler," and even hurling slurs at Poland's prime minister. xAI scrubbed the posts and promised tighter safeguards, framing the missteps as part of the messy process of training frontier AI. "We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts," the company said at the time, adding that its vast user base helps flag blind spots so the model can be retrained quickly. More than 30 advocacy groups urged the Office of Management and Budget to keep the model out of federal systems, and several Democratic lawmakers pressed the GSA on its decision, according to news site Fedscoop. A GSA spokesperson has stressed the agency is weighing all vendors "equally" and that no single deal amounts to a final endorsement.

xAI offers Grok to federal agencies for 42 cents

Elon Musk's xAI will offer Grok to federal agencies for 42 cents each, becoming the latest company to provide its artificial intelligence (AI) models to the government at a steep discount. Agencies will be able to access Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast, xAI's latest models, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced Thursday. The offer will be available for the next 18 months. The xAI agreement follows several similar deals between the government and major tech firms. OpenAI and Anthropic both announced in August that they would offer their AI models to agencies for $1. Shortly after, Google said it would provide Gemini for an even lower price, 47 cents. "Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI's frontier AI is now unlocked for every federal agency empowering the U.S. Government to innovate faster and accomplish its mission more effectively than ever before" Musk, co-founder and CEO of the AI firm, said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to rapidly deploy AI throughout the government for the benefit of the country," he added. Musk, who has had a rocky relationship with the president in recent months, was seen with Trump on Sunday at a memorial service for conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. The two were spotted sitting together and speaking during the service, although Trump later downplayed the reunion. "I thought it was nice, he came over, we had a little conversation," Trump told reporters. "We had a very good relationship, but it was nice that he came over." Since leaving the White House earlier this year, Musk has reportedly devoted increasing attention to his AI firm. The tech mogul departed from the administration in late May after a four-month stint leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). His departure became mired in public spat with Trump over the president's "big, beautiful bill." The two traded jabs online, with Musk eventually pledging to launch a third party.

Musk's xAI to provide Grok chatbot to US federal agencies - The Economic Times

Elon Musk's xAI has struck a deal with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide the artificial intelligence startup's Grok chatbot to federal agencies, the government's procurement arm said on Thursday. The contract underscores Washington's push to expand the use of AI in government operations, while intensifying competition among leading developers of the booming technology for federal business. The agreement, effective through March 2027, allows agencies to buy Grok models for 42 cents per organization, compared with the $1 per year OpenAI charges for access to its ChatGPT service, GSA said. The contract covers Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast, which xAI describes as its most advanced reasoning models. The agency said xAI engineers would also assist agencies with implementation. Agencies will also have the option to upgrade to Grok enterprise subscriptions aligned with federal security standards, offering expanded features and higher usage limits. The deal is the latest under GSA's "OneGov Strategy," launched in April to standardize technology procurement and expand government use of AI. Other suppliers under the program include OpenAI, Meta Platforms, Alphabet's Google and Anthropic. GSA has also approved Meta's Llama model for agency use earlier this week, making it available to federal customers at no cost.

xAI's Grok receives clearance for use across federal agencies; Musk sues OpenAI over trade secrets

xAI, which is run by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, has received approval for some of its Grok artificial intelligence models to be used by federal government employees, according to the U.S. General Services Administration. Federal agencies can gain access Federal approval provides xAI with broad adoption across U.S. government agencies, enhancing its credibility and market visibility compared to competitors. Grok gives taxpayers significant savings, being available at $0.42 per organization for 18 months, while ChatGPT Enterprise is $1 per agency for a year. xAI claims OpenAI induced employees to steal trade secrets, raising legal and operational risks related to intellectual property and market reputation.

Elon Musk's AI firm inks deal with Trump admin -- but shouldn't...

WASHINGTON -- Tech baron Elon Musk's xAI company has inked a deal with the Trump administration to help streamline and modernize the federal government -- but the two billionaires haven't exactly kissed and made up. The General Services Administration -- which oversees federal properties and procures goods, services and IT for government agencies -- finalized a deal to access Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast until March 2027, the agency announced Thursday. The deal with AI was being negotiated weeks ago, a White House official told The Post, adding that the relationship between Musk and Trump and the business deal is "separate." Although Trump took the time to "listen" to Musk at Charlie Kirk's memorial service on Sunday, there is a long way to go for the two men to fully reconcile, and we "shouldn't expect Elon in the Oval any time soon," the source said. Still, the deal marks a rare team-up after Musk went berserk on Trump in June over the deficit impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (now the Working Families Tax Cut Act), which the tech mogul lambasted for undermining the cost-cutting work of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team. In addition to granting the GSA access to its high-end chatbot system, xAI will also task its engineers with helping government agencies implement its artificial intelligence tools into government agency workstreams. Fox News first reported on the deal. "xAI has the most powerful AI compute and most capable AI models in the world," Musk, who founded xAi after his X takeover, said in a statement. "Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI's frontier AI is now unlocked for every federal agency, empowering the U.S. Government to innovate faster and accomplish its mission more effectively than ever before," Musk continued. "We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to rapidly deploy AI throughout the government for the benefit of the country." While the total pricetag of the deal hasn't been released, the GSA claims it will have access to Grok AI models for $0.42 per federal agency. It is the longest-term "OneGov AI agreement" the feds have inked to date. The deal gives agencies the ability to upgrade their systems for "expanded features and higher rate limits." xAI will also provide training programs to help the government adopt its systems. The GSA is tasked with centralizing procurement for shared services across the vast federal bureaucracy, including over $110 billion worth of contracts for products and services. The deal with xAI is intended to simplify procurement for AI systems used by the federal government. "Widespread access to advanced AI models is essential to building the efficient, accountable government that taxpayers deserve -- and to fulfilling President Trump's promise that America will win the global AI race," Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum said in a statement. Back in July, the Trump administration released its AI Action Plan, in keeping with a January executive order from the president to craft plans for the nascent technology. Recently, the GSA began the process of rehiring hundreds of federal workers who were laid off as part of early beltightening by the Trump administration, the Associated Press reported. Musk's time as the driving force behind DOGE wrapped up in May. Following a chummy farewell with Trump in the Oval Office, the two men got into an epic public spat. Since then, the two have exchanged compliments on social media and met in person on Sunday in Arizona at Kirk's memorial service. "Elon came over and said hello," Trump later recounted to reporters. "I thought it was nice, he came over, we had a little conversation." A lipreader claimed that Trump had told Musk, "Let's try and work out how to get back on track."

Musk's xAI to provide Grok chatbot to US federal agencies

(Reuters) -Elon Musk's xAI has struck a deal with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide the artificial intelligence startup's Grok chatbot to federal agencies, the government's procurement arm said on Thursday. The contract underscores Washington's push to expand the use of AI in government operations, while intensifying competition among leading developers of the booming technology for federal business. The agreement, effective through March 2027, allows agencies to buy Grok models for 42 cents per organization, compared with the $1 per year OpenAI charges for access to its ChatGPT service, GSA said. The contract covers Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast, which xAI describes as its most advanced reasoning models. The agency said xAI engineers would also assist agencies with implementation. Agencies will also have the option to upgrade to Grok enterprise subscriptions aligned with federal security standards, offering expanded features and higher usage limits. However, critics have said Grok has generated factually wrong answers and politically skewed commentary, reflecting broader doubts over the reliability of generative AI. Advocacy groups have flagged episodes where the system produced offensive language or conspiracy-tinged claims, prompting questions about the safeguards built into its algorithms. The deal is the latest under GSA's "OneGov Strategy," launched in April to standardize technology procurement and expand government use of AI. Other suppliers under the program include OpenAI, Meta Platforms, Alphabet's Google and Anthropic. GSA has also approved Meta's Llama model for agency use earlier this week, making it available to federal customers at no cost. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)