The Pentagon is using five-minute videos to speed up AI buying

A video can clear a procurement hurdle

Run by the Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, Tradewinds asks companies to submit short videos showing how their AI products address a government priority. A review board considers applications at least monthly. Approved products enter the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace, where government agencies can view their videos.

The designation does not itself award a contract. It gives a product “competitive” status, which can satisfy a formal requirement for competitive selection and potentially cut months from the contracting process. A Defense Department spokesperson said the agency had used Tradewinds to sign contracts in less than a week in several cases.

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are among the program’s participants. All three declined to comment on the reporting.

The marketplace has existed since late 2022, but the Trump administration has been more vocal than its predecessor about buying AI for the military and putting it to work. Its 2027 budget request asks Congress for $1.5 trillion for the Defense Department, describing “historic investments” in AI as a priority.

This year’s priorities include AI to “increase the lethality of the armed forces” and tools to “unlock the potential” of AI agents in collaborative targeting, including the so-called kill chain. Proposals focused on “responsible AI” and safeguards—prominent in the final cycle under the Biden administration—appear to have receded. A Defense Department spokesperson said the 2026 topics were chosen in line with an AI strategy memorandum published in January 2026.

Speed comes with a visibility problem

Tradewinds status can also help buyers use certain contract mechanisms, including other transaction agreements, or OTs. These agreements are exempt from some federal procurement requirements. By law, the Pentagon can spend up to $500 million on a single OT without notifying Congress.

Procurement experts say OTs are faster and more flexible, qualities that can appeal to startups unwilling to wait months for a decision. But spending data is not always published, and when it is, it can be hard to find on government sites such as USASpending.gov and SAM.gov.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst told WIRED that OTs can bring in new partners and reduce bureaucracy, but audits have also found questionable spending, mishandling of controlled information, weak oversight and accountability, limited transparency, and difficulty tracking outcomes or accessing them.

Ernst recently secured passage of the Stop Secret Spending Act of 2025, which will require the Defense Department and other agencies to publish information about OTs. They have three years to comply.

Public records show that Google, Anthropic and OpenAI have OTs with the CDAO. A Defense Department spokesperson said the agency used Tradewinds alongside market analysis and research to shape its AI procurement strategy. The companies did not confirm that the program was used for the specific agreements identified by WIRED.

The leverage is shifting

Tradewinds was designed in part to bring “nontraditional” suppliers into defense, said Will Roberts, a former procurement chief at the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the CDAO’s predecessor. He helped launch the program and described it as an attempt to restore an earlier balance.

After the Cold War, the Pentagon encouraged defense-industry mergers as Congress prepared to cut military spending sharply. The episode became known as the “Last Supper.” Working with fewer large contractors may seem simpler, Roberts said, but the mergers had a serious effect on competition.

At around the same time, the personal-computer boom gave Silicon Valley a way to fund its own research and choose its direction without relying on military money or influence, said Sharon Weinberger, a national-security journalist and author of “The Valley of Death: The Military in an Age of High-Tech Weapons.”

The Pentagon once helped finance and shape technologies including the internet and GPS. That investment gave it influence, Roberts said. Now that influence is weaker: technology companies are investing billions of dollars in AI themselves. Weinberger said Pentagon investment is a drop in the ocean beside venture capital, leaving the department at risk of losing its ability to shape how the technology develops.

I think that is the tension behind a procurement tool built for speed. Tradewinds may widen access to military contracts, but access is not the same as influence—and faster deals are harder to scrutinize when the public record is thin.

The strain has surfaced in disputes including the recent legal fight over Anthropic’s designation as a supply-chain risk. Weinberger said it reflects the government’s effort to establish what legal tools it can use to influence AI companies.

Roberts also recalled that Google employees became “extremely concerned” about the company’s involvement in the Pentagon’s Maven project in 2018, after which Google withdrew. He said the Pentagon spent years trying to “appease” the company with less politically contentious work, including humanitarian aid and veterans’ health. Google declined to comment on whether Roberts’ account was accurate.

The Tradewinds catalog lists “Google for Military Health — Tradewinds” among products cleared for contracting. In July 2025, Google announced a $200 million deal with the CDAO to use its advanced AI technologies. Jim Kelly, Google Public Sector’s vice president, said in the company’s press release that it intended to help deploy innovative technology across the defense sector.

The Pentagon can make procurement move faster. Whether it can still shape the technology being procured is a harder problem—and one a five-minute video cannot answer.