The Pentagon signed a contract with Musk's companies for the development and implementation of UAV voice control technologies

The companies Elona Musk SpaceX xAI were among the limited and undisclosed circle of participants in the competition for the US Department of Defense development of autonomous swarm voice control technology. This was unmanned aerial vehicles announced on February 16, 2026, citing Bloomberg sources familiar with the situation.

According to the data received, a 6-month competition with a prize pool of $100 million was launched in January 2026 by the Defense Innovation Unit and the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, created in the structure of the US Special Operations Command .

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Фото: Reuters

The competition involves the phased development of technology to convert voice commands into digital instructions to control multiple drones at the same time. The project includes five stages: from creation software to conducting tests in real conditions.

The task description Pentagon states that ON it should provide coordination of movements drones in the air and marine environment, and in the late stages - target recognition and information exchange.

The representative of the defense department in the announcement of the competition noted that the drones being developed will be used for offensive purposes, and the interaction of man and machine "will directly affect the mortality and effectiveness of these systems."

According to Bloomberg, xAI has stepped up the hiring of engineers with access to classified information to work with federal contractors and the Ministry of Defense. In December 2025, the company signed contracts with the Pentagon to integrate the Grok chatbot into government systems, having previously received a $200 million contract to integrate its developments into military systems.

SpaceX is a longtime contractor, Pentagon producing launch vehicles and satellites for military communications. In February 2026, Elon Musk announced the merger of SpaceX and xAI in a $1.25 trillion deal to create a vertically integrated structure combining developments in AI, rocket science, space Internet and satellite communications.

Other contestants include Applied Intuition, supported by OpenAI. OpenAI technology will only be used to convert voice commands into digital instructions, with no use for drone control, weapons integration or targeting.^[1]

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