Google, Microsoft, xAI Grant U.S. Early AI Model Access; GOOG +1.22%

Alphabet, Microsoft, and xAI have agreed to provide the U.S. government early access to their AI models for evaluation by the Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation, aiming to assess capabilities, security, and standards. This follows the Pentagon's May 1 certification of eight firms—including Google—for deploying AI on classified Impact Level 6/7 networks via GenAI.mil, adopted by 1.3 million personnel who generated tens of millions of prompts, slashing task times from months to days. On May 4, Google CEO Sundar Pichai discussed AI compute shortages with Trump administration officials, highlighting Google's TPUs lacking IL6 clearance amid DoD's $961.6B 2026 budget with $33.7B for AI.