The White House appears to have instructed leaders at the General Services Administration (GSA) to add xAI’s Grok chatbot to a list of approved vendors “ASAP,” according to an email sent by agency leadership earlier this week, which WIRED obtained.
“Team: Grok/xAI needs to go back on the schedule ASAP per the WH,” states the email, sent by Josh Gruenbaum, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service. “Can someone get with Carahsoft on this immediately and please confirm?” Carahsoft is a major government contractor that resells technology from third-party firms.
“Should be all of their products we had previously (3 & 4),” the email continued, seemingly referring to Grok 3 and Grok 4. The subject line of the email was “xAI add Grok-4.”
Sources say Carahsoft’s contract was modified to include xAI earlier this week. Grok 3 and Grok 4 both currently appear on GSA Advantage (an online marketplace for government agencies to buy products and services) as of Friday morning. Now, following some internal reviews, any government agency can roll Grok out to federal workers.
The White House and GSA did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED.
The email comes after a planned partnership with xAI fell apart earlier this summer following Grok’s widespread praise for Hitler and the spouting of other antisemitic beliefs on X, WIRED previously reported.
In June, employees from xAI met with GSA leadership for a two-hour brainstorming session to discuss how xAI’s Grok chatbot could be used by the government. Federal workers were surprised to see their leaders press for a contract with a company marketing an uncensored chatbot with a history of erratic behavior. In early July, Grok, which is integrated into Elon Musk’s social platform X, seemingly went off the rails and started praising Hitler. GSA leadership took Grok off the Multiple Award Schedule, which is GSA’s long-term government contracting platform, according to sources at the agency. When GSA announced buzzy partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google earlier this month, xAI wasn’t mentioned at all.
xAI is Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup. Musk, who also helms the social network X in addition to a number of other companies, played a crucial role in President Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He stepped back from his public-facing role at DOGE this spring, following a massive fight with the president. A number of his associates continue to work in government pushing DOGE’s cost-cutting and AI-first agenda.
Source
