Scale AI Expands Pentagon AI Partnership to $500 Million

Scale AI, building reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions, led by Alexandr Wang and the team, has announced that the U.S. Department of War's (DoW) Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) has expanded its enterprise agreement with Scale AI, increasing the total potential value from $100 million to $500 million.

The five-fold ceiling increase follows strong demand for the Production OTA agreement, with projects across computer vision, generative AI, and data operations. The expansion underscores Scale’s growing role as a key AI infrastructure partner for the defense sector.

Lowering the Barrier to Enterprise AI

The CDAO Production OTA is designed to bypass the slow, fragmented procurement cycles that have traditionally limited innovation. Instead of requiring new competitive solicitations, any DoW component can use the centralized contracting vehicle to launch Project Agreements covering Scale’s AI products and services.

This flexibility has driven rapid adoption since the agreement’s initial award, with the expanded ceiling enabling broader support for the Department’s growing AI initiatives.

Key advantages for DoW components include pre-negotiated volume-based pricing, partial co-funding from CDAO to reduce costs, and streamlined Project Agreements that eliminate the need for new competitive solicitations, allowing AI initiatives to move significantly faster.

The agreement has already seen broad adoption across the Services, with customers including components from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, alongside defense agencies and OSW offices, highlighting demand across both operational and institutional areas of the Department.

Under the agreement, DoW components can access Scale’s full AI platform, including:

• Scale Data Engine: An MLOps platform for building and deploying computer vision models using defense-focused, AI-ready data.

• Scale GenAI Platform (SGP): A secure platform for fine-tuning, evaluating, and deploying generative AI models on classified networks.

• Scale Donovan: A generative AI decision-support platform for defense and intelligence operations.

• Engineering Capability Development Sprints: Mission-specific data and software development engagements.

These capabilities are available across NIPR, SIPR, and JWICS networks.

Advancing the Department of War AI Strategy

The expansion supports the Department of War’s AI strategy by strengthening data infrastructure and accelerating the deployment of operational AI systems.

Scale’s role centers on two priorities: transforming sensitive raw data into AI-ready assets through its Data Engine, and enabling agile deployment pipelines that deliver advanced AI capabilities in months instead of years.

As deployment expands from pilots to enterprise-scale adoption, the platform is designed to support the Department’s Responsible AI principles by ensuring systems remain reliable, auditable, and trusted in operational environments. The partnership with the CDAO is positioned around building long-term AI infrastructure for mission-critical defense capabilities over the coming decade.