OpenAI restricts GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, Luna models to select partners following U.S. government request

OpenAI announced three new AI models on June 26, 2026—GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna—but will initially limit access to a "small group of trusted partners" at the request of the U.S. government. The company plans to make the models generally available "in the coming weeks," according to a company blog post.

The restricted rollout follows the Trump administration's AI executive order signed earlier this month, which asked AI developers to voluntarily allow the government to assess model capabilities before full release. OpenAI says it previewed the models' capabilities and shared its plans with the government ahead of the announcement.

Model capabilities

The three models are named according to capability tiers. GPT-5.6 Sol is OpenAI's "strongest offering yet," according to the company, with improvements across coding and biology. OpenAI claims it is the company's most capable model for cybersecurity, though it says the model is better at helping users fix vulnerabilities than carrying out end-to-end attacks. The company states Sol does not cross into OpenAI's "critical" cybersecurity risk threshold, defined as bringing "unprecedented new pathways to severe harm."

OpenAI did not disclose specific benchmark scores, context window sizes, pricing, or the names of trusted partners with access. Technical specifications for Terra and Luna were not detailed in the announcement.

Government oversight precedent

The announcement comes two weeks after Anthropic disabled access to two of its latest models to comply with an export control directive from the Trump administration. Anthropic remains in negotiations with Washington officials and has not provided a timeline for when the models will return online.

OpenAI stated it "doesn't believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default," arguing that restrictions "keep the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders, and global partners who need them." The company says it is working with the Trump administration to establish a framework for model assessments and develop a "repeatable process for future model releases."

What this means

This marks the first confirmed case of OpenAI delaying a public model release due to government intervention. The development establishes a precedent for pre-release government review of advanced AI models in the U.S., though the voluntary nature and lack of formal regulatory framework leave questions about enforcement and scope. The restricted rollout strategy differs significantly from OpenAI's previous model launches and signals a new era of coordination between frontier AI labs and U.S. regulators.