A week after Elon Musk’s Grok dubbed itself “MechaHitler” and spewed antisemitic stereotypes, the US government has announced a new contract granting the chatbot’s creator, xAI, up to $200 million to modernize the Defense Department. xAI is one of several leading AI companies to receive the award, alongside Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. But the timing of the announcement is striking given Grok’s recent high-profile spiral, which drew congressional ire and public pushback. In addition to the DoD contract, xAI says other federal agencies will now be able to purchase its tools via the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. The company plans to work on new products for government customers, like custom models focused on national security, applications for healthcare and science use cases, and models accessible in classified environments.