White House Approves $9 Billion for Spy Agencies to Buy AI Chips

4 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 22

$9 billion in secret funding has been approved for U.S. spy agencies to acquire advanced AI chips and related computing capacity, with Congress still needing to sign off.
The push follows White House and congressional concern that chip shortages are leaving intelligence agencies behind in testing and deploying AI for classified espionage work.
Part of the money would build infrastructure for Nvidia's Grace Blackwell superchip, including power-hungry data centers and specialized liquid-cooling systems; the administration is also reprogramming $800 million for faster capacity purchases.
Susie Wiles has separately authorized the NSA to keep using an Anthropic model despite the Pentagon labeling the company a supply-chain threat, underscoring how urgently agencies want more AI capability.
Officials and outside experts expect even larger sums ahead as AI becomes more central to military and intelligence analysis, including combing vast data sets for missed intercepts.

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Can spy agencies' new flaw-finding AI be secured from becoming a weapon against the nation itself?