Daybreak for Frontline Defenders: $1B to protect essential services

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. The initiative includes:

A $1 billion global commitment to expand subsidized access to Daybreak cyber models and products, training, technical support, and partnerships in the United States and internationally.

Daybreak for America, bringing together all of OpenAI’s U.S. work to protect the systems Americans rely on every day —from water and electricity to local government and banking—including a new pilot with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC).

Ultimately, the goal is not just to find more vulnerabilities, but to fix them faster. This week, we published OpenAI’s approach to building a Defense Factory ⁠ : a continuous, agent-first operation that builds on existing security and engineering tools to find and validate vulnerabilities and prepare tested fixes for review. We are sharing its architecture and lessons so other defenders can adapt the approach to their own environments.

This commitment builds on support already provided to infrastructure defenders facing urgent threats. Following recent attacks on U.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.

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. This week’s second gathering of utility companies brought together participants representing 40 states and the District of Columbia that collectively provide essential services to more than half of the U.S. population.

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.

More than 35 enterprise products and partner-operated services through the Daybreak Defense Network, bringing Daybreak cyber models into the tools, services, and workflows enterprise defenders already use.

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.