The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) just signed a $500 million contract with Scale AI to help the military filter data and support combat decisions. In September, that contract was worth just $100 million — meaning it’s expanded fivefold in eight months. Dan Tadross, head of Scale AI’s public sector business, said the Pentagon had nearly burned through the original contract ceiling. Meta took a 49% stake in Scale AI last year.
Beyond this deal, Scale AI is also involved in the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU — the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley outpost that fast-tracks commercial tech for military use) Thunderforge project and Trump’s Golden Dome homeland defense architecture. In early May, the Pentagon signed separate agreements with Nvidia, Microsoft, Reflection AI, and Amazon to deploy AI tools onto classified military networks. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a strategic memo in January calling for faster AI adoption and slashing bureaucratic procurement red tape. These contracts are all part of that push.