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On Thursday, the Trump administration reportedly agreed to use the AI models from Musk's xAI.

Through a new partnership, the Trump administration will provide federal agencies with access to AI models from Musk's xAI. This move could give a boost to Musk's AI company and signal a warming relationship between him and the White House. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees technology procurement for the government, announced in a press release on Thursday that under the agreement, federal agencies will be able to access models, including Grok 4 and a new, faster version called Grok 4 Fast, for a nominal fee of 42 cents.

This agreement follows similar deals with Google's Alphabet, OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT), and Anthropic. This AI model company has had friction with the White House. It means the U.S. federal government now has partnerships with four of the leading developers of advanced AI systems in the country.

OpenAI and Anthropic agreed to offer their models for $1, while Google's price is 47 cents. Musk chose the number 42 as a nod to its significance in the science fiction novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

These companies are willing to offer their technology almost for free to gain a foothold within the federal government, as it is seen as an authoritative endorsement in the AI race. Automating outdated government processes is considered one of the most promising applications for this technology, sparking intense competition to become the most commonly used tool among federal employees. All four companies also hold contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, each valued at approximately $200 million.

“We really like the notion of having strong competition and market tension between these models and these companies,” said Josh Gruenbaum, Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the GSA, 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.”

Gruenbaum, who oversees procurement at the GSA – the government's purchasing department responsible for selecting technology vendors – is one of several GSA officials connected to Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which promotes the use of AI to replace federal employees. Gruenbaum stated that the GSA makes decisions independently of the DOGE but naturally prioritizes efficiency. He emphasized that the primary role of AI is to enhance employee productivity.

The relationship between Musk and Trump appears to have improved after Musk left the Trump administration at the end of May and subsequently publicly clashed with the former president. Last Sunday, at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk in Arizona, Musk was seen sitting next to Trump, and the two shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

Musk's xAI had been negotiating this agreement with the GSA for months. In July, during the negotiations, Grok made a series of antisemitic remarks. AI models can sometimes hallucinate and return false results. Gruenbaum said the GSA conducted a comprehensive evaluation of these systems and deemed it appropriate to proceed with the agreement. The company apologized for the incident afterward.

“We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to rapidly deploy AI throughout the government,” Musk said in the press release.

His company stated that it aims to maintain political neutrality in its AI's responses, echoing an executive order signed by Trump in July that stipulates the government will not work with chatbots that exhibit bias.

Although xAI has made progress in developing powerful AI models, it still struggles to compete with more established rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in terms of the number of paying customers.