Daybreak for Frontline Defenders: $1B to protect

What happened

Today OpenAI is introducing Daybreak for Frontline Defenders, a new global initiative to help frontline defenders use frontier AI cyber capabilities to protect essential services in the United States and around the world.

Daybreak access can help them review legacy code, analyze suspicious activity, identify and validate vulnerabilities, prioritize the most serious risks, and develop and test fixes. In the coming weeks, we intend to expand this model to partner countries. This commitment builds on support already provided to infrastructure defenders facing urgent threats. S.

water systems, we offered affected states and utilities up to $1 million in no-cost API credits, Daybreak access, and technical assistance. Teams were able to use that support to review code and system configurations, validate findings, develop patches, and confirm fixes while water systems remained operational and communities continued receiving the services they depended on.

Earlier this year, we launched Daybreak, which enables verified public and private sector defenders to use advanced AI for authorized cyber defense. Daybreak Blue supports common defensive work with our mainline models; Daybreak Red gives approved organizations access to specialized cyber models for more sensitive and technically demanding work. Thousands of defenders across 2,000 approved organizations and workspaces already use Daybreak, including cybersecurity companies, defense organizations, and law enforcement organizations.

Alongside broader access, we are increasing hands-on support for frontline defenders in essential sectors. We have convened an ongoing series of meetings with frontline defenders, including utilities, state and local governments, community banks, and others, to learn from their work and help them use our tools to harden their systems, and we will continue those convenings as Daybreak for Frontline Defenders expands. S. population.

Why it matters

The initiative includes: Every day, we depend on cyber defenders to protect the systems that keep communities running: the water coming from the tap, the electricity powering homes and businesses, the local government systems that deliver public services, and the financial institutions people trust with their money. Many operate with limited staff and budgets, while defending complex and aging systems.

In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable. That shift puts every organization on notice. Defenders need to act now: test systems, find weaknesses, and strengthen defenses before attackers do. Frontier AI can help defenders move faster. We have a defender’s window: a narrowing opportunity to use AI to close security gaps before attackers seize them.

Our role is to help put powerful tools in defenders’ hands so they can protect the systems, and the people, they are responsible for. Last week, we called for collective action to seize that window, alongside more than 150 organizations across cybersecurity, technology, critical infrastructure, finance, and AI. No single company can secure the systems we all depend on.

Every organization has a role to play, and defenders need the tools to move faster. Today, OpenAI is making a major commitment to help. Daybreak for Frontline Defenders brings together $1 billion in subsidized access to frontier cyber capabilities, hands-on training and technical assistance, and new partnerships to get those capabilities to organizations that protect the services people depend on every day.

We are starting where the gap is greatest: with defenders carrying enormous responsibility without the resources of the world’s largest companies. Our goal is to build a model that can protect the services Americans rely on and, with our partners, help put frontier cybersecurity in the hands of frontline defenders around the world.

OpenAI is committing $1 billion in subsidized Daybreak access to help resource-constrained cyber defenders, starting with the United States, put frontier AI to work, targeting it to be consumed over the next six months.

As part of our “Daybreak for America” commitment, we will prioritize operators of essential services—including water and wastewater systems and electric grid operators, alongside state and local governments, community and regional banks, nonprofits, open-source maintainers, and other organizations with limited security resources. Many of these teams defend complex and often aging systems against faster-moving threats without the budgets, tools, or specialized expertise available to large enterprises.

What to watch

Access to capable models is only useful if frontline defenders have the training and support to use them effectively. Today, we are announcing a public sector and water-focused pilot with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or MS-ISAC, to train and support state, local, tribal, and territorial cyber defenders.

The pilot will pair Daybreak access with guided training and hands-on assistance for an initial group of public sector and water system defenders, helping them validate and prioritize findings, coordinate remediation, and develop a repeatable approach that can be expanded over time.