President Trump signed a national security directive on June 5 ordering US defense and intelligence agencies to spread their AI contracts across multiple providers. The memorandum, designated NSPM-11, effectively ends the era of single-vendor AI relationships for classified government work.
What the directive actually requires
NSPM-11 gives national security agencies 120 days to overhaul their AI procurement processes. That puts the deadline at October 3, 2026, for transitioning to a multi-vendor framework.
The agencies covered aren’t small players. The directive names the Department of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the NSA, and CISA among the organizations required to comply. Each must establish partnerships with both large and small AI firms going forward.
One particularly notable provision involves what the memorandum calls “covered frontier models.” The directive requires voluntary frameworks that would give government agencies access to innovative AI models up to 30 days before their official public release.
