The AI military complex: Which are the main companies in it?

What the report says

Al Jazeera reported on July 27 that large defence and technology contracts are accelerating the military use of artificial intelligence, with spending increasingly concentrated among a small group of established arms makers, defence startups, cloud providers and AI model developers. The article frames the shift as a move from a hardware-dominated military-industrial system toward one in which software, data processing, autonomous systems and screen-based warfare play a central role.

Recent examples cited include a 15-year, 2 billion pound ($2.7bn) UK Ministry of Defence agreement with Omnia Training, led by Raytheon UK, to train tens of thousands of troops annually on AI-enabled military readiness. Al Jazeera also noted NATO contracts involving Anduril, Palantir and France’s Athea SAS for an air command-and-control data platform, and a US Department of Defense arrangement with firms including SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Oracle and Amazon Web Services for classified military networks.

Using Stockholm International Peace Research Institute categories, the report identifies four broad groups in the sector. Traditional defence primes such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and General Dynamics are adding AI to aircraft, sensors and targeting systems. “Neoprime” defence-tech companies such as Palantir, Anduril and Shield AI focus on military software, autonomous drones, battlefield data integration and decision-support tools.

The article says major cloud and computing companies are becoming more important because advanced military AI depends on secure infrastructure and large-scale processing capacity. It also highlights foundational model providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Mistral AI, whose systems may be incorporated into military applications. Al Jazeera adds that Chinese firms and researchers are also developing AI tools for intelligence, surveillance and decision-making, underscoring the global competition around AI-enabled warfare.