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The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Trump set back on voting, Kennedy Center, Anthropic
The cases have widespread implications across the United States Federal courts on Thursday dealt President Donald Trump setbacks in several ongoing legal battles with broad implications. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston issued a new block on the U.S. Postal Service carrying out Trump's executive order to limit mail voting. In Northern California, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ordered the Pentagon to end its "illegal and baseless" blacklisting of Anthropic. And U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., stalled administration plans to quickly inscribe Trump's name back on the Kennedy Center. Who said what After Anthropic said it didn't want its AI used for domestic surveillance or autonomous killing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled it a supply-chain risk using an "obscure government-procurement statute" designed to thwart "foreign sabotage," Reuters said. The administration's "contemporaneous words and deeds confirm" it was actually acting to "make a public example out of Anthropic," Lin wrote. The "empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics." Talwani issued a 14-day block of USPS mail voting action a day after lifting an earlier hold in response to a Supreme Court ruling. The "whipsaw of action" could "confuse voters," The New York Times said. But "each delay has reduced the administration's chances of clearing the legal hurdles to execute" Trump's order before the midterms. Now that the USPS' "likely unconstitutional regulation" is finalized, Talwani wrote, "compliance is practically impossible" before ballots go out "as early as next week." What next? After Cooper threatened to block the Trump inscription if the Kennedy Center stuck to its Sept. 8 start date, the Justice Department last night said it would delay action until at least Oct. 8.
Judge rules Trump administration illegally punished AI firm Anthropic
Joe Walsh is a senior editor for digital politics at CBS News. Joe previously covered breaking news for Forbes and local news in Boston. A judge late Thursday permanently barred the Trump administration from enforcing a set of rules aimed at cutting off Anthropic from the federal government, ruling the administration had unconstitutionally punished the artificial intelligence company for protected speech. The ruling marks a victory for Anthropic in its monthslong legal battle against the administration over its push to impose guardrails on its powerful AI model Claude, which is used by the military. Anthropic sought to prevent Claude from being used for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, but the military argued it should be allowed to use the model for all lawful purposes. With the two sides unable to reach a deal, President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Claude earlier this year, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared the firm a supply chain risk, aiming to prevent private defense contractors from using it to do work for the military. The administration argued those moves were necessary to safeguard national security. In her ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin of San Francisco declared that those actions violated the First Amendment by punishing it for disagreeing with the government, calling them "unlawful retaliation against Anthropic for constitutionally protected expressive activities." She also said the moves against Anthropic violated the company's due process rights. Lin said her order does not require the government to use Anthropic or stop it from giving another AI firm its business, "so long as those actions are consistent with applicable regulations, statutes, and constitutional provisions." "The government is certainly owed deference on weighty issues of national security," Lin wrote in a 59-page opinion. "But Defendants' contemporaneous words and deeds confirm that the challenged actions were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." Lin continued: "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics." An Anthropic spokesperson told CBS News: "We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful. We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." CBS News has reached out to the Pentagon and the White House for comment. In her ruling, Lin wrote that Anthropic does not meet the legal definition of a "supply chain risk," a designation typically used to prevent a foreign adversary from sabotaging a crucial U.S. system. The government has argued in the past that Anthropic's tough negotiating stance and push for AI restrictions caused federal officials to fear the company could engage in "future sabotage" by installing a "kill switch" in its software. But Lin called this concern "entirely unfounded," pointing to evidence offered by Anthropic that it doesn't have the ability to maintain "backdoor" access to its systems. She also argued the fears of sabotage are tough to square with the government's continued interest in collaborating with Anthropic on advanced AI models. "An IT vendor does not become a potential adversary of the United States whenever it asks probing questions or stubbornly insists on particular contracting terms, even if doing so causes DoW to doubt its trustworthiness," Lin said in her ruling Thursday. Lin also invalidated a February social media post by Hegseth stating that no military contractors are allowed to conduct "any commercial activity with Anthropic," saying it led to a broader "boycott" of the AI firm -- even among military contractors that were using Anthropic for non-military-related work. Lawyers for the government had conceded that designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk didn't prevent companies from using the AI technology for other purposes. And Lin reversed several other federal agencies' efforts to cut off Anthropic, which followed a Truth Social post by Mr. Trump ordering the government to "IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology." She said those moves weren't authorized by law, and the president's directive was a "retaliatory act, taken without due process, meant to punish Anthropic for its protected speech." The judge wrote that "the decision to publicly broadcast Anthropic's punishment via social media -- even before the formal, administrative process of making the necessary findings to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk had begun -- makes little sense except as an attempt to swiftly make a public example of Anthropic for daring to criticize the Administration." The dispute between Anthropic and the military highlights a broader debate over how governments and private companies should balance the potential benefits and perils of artificial intelligence. Anthropic and its CEO, Dario Amodei, have long been vocal in their support for regulations and guardrails to manage the dangers of unconstrained AI technology. The Trump administration has called for some voluntary federal oversight of powerful AI models, but argues that overly stringent regulations could stifle innovation and make the U.S. less competitive against China, and has accused some AI models of being politically biased or "woke." The disagreement burst into public view earlier this year, as the two sides feuded over AI restrictions. Amodei told CBS News in February he has a "patriotic" desire to work with the military, but he has two absolute "red lines": using Claude to conduct mass surveillance of Americans, and using it to power autonomous weapons that can target people without human input. He argued Claude isn't accurate enough for autonomous weapons, and mass surveillance could clash with American values. The military argued that federal laws and internal policies already prevent domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, so there is no need to restrict those practices in the Pentagon's contracts. After negotiations between the two sides broke down in February, the Trump administration lashed out at Anthropic, accusing it of seeking to impose its own ideology on the military. Hegseth called Anthropic "sanctimonious," and Mr. Trump called it a "radical left, woke company." After the Trump administration took action against Anthropic, the company sued in San Francisco federal court, accusing the government of violating the First Amendment by punishing it for protected speech. It also challenged the government's actions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a case that is still pending. Anthropic drew support from civil liberties groups and from other tech industry players, including Microsoft, which wrote in an amicus brief that designating Anthropic a supply chain risk "may bring severe economic effects that are not in the public interest." The government pushed back, arguing it cut off Anthropic not because it criticized the Trump administration, but because the Defense Department -- which the administration has sought to rename the Department of War -- no longer trusted the company. It also argued Mr. Trump has the power to decide not to buy Anthropic's services, and called the decisions by federal agencies to stop using Claude "internal IT housekeeping." "The government did not retaliate against Anthropic for any protected speech," Justice Department lawyers wrote in June. "Instead, DoW assessed a substantial risk that Anthropic might manipulate its AI model to enforce subjective redlines on DoW's use of the model, in ways that could cause serious harm to national security." Lin was skeptical of the Trump administration's position early on. She issued a preliminary injunction blocking the government from cutting off Anthropic in March, after calling the moves "troubling" and "Orwellian."
OpenAI, Anthropic, tech leaders warn of "limited window" to defend against AI cyber threats
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting. Leading developers of the most powerful artificial intelligence tools are warning that their technology may soon be used to carry out sophisticated cyberattacks against companies and institutions, ranging from hospitals to technology firms. In an open letter published Thursday, the leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and dozens of other signatories said there is a "limited window" to strengthen cyber defenses and protect against potentially devastating AI-enabled cyberattacks. That window may last only months, it added. The signatories also include security companies like CrowdStrike and banks including Citi and Capital One. The same AI advances that could increase risks to public services and technology infrastructure can also help organizations identify and "fix weaknesses" that leave them vulnerable, the letter said. "If we act decisively, we can use the defenders' window to make our digital world much more secure," the letter said. A recent CrowdStrike report on cybersecurity found that AI-enabled attacks increased by 89% in 2025 compared to 2024. How to defend against attacks The companies said that the status quo for cybersecurity "won't be enough." "Longstanding bugs, excessive permissions, misconfigurations, insecure and unpatched software, weak authentication and technical debt in legacy systems have left systems exposed," the letter said. Security teams need to be beefed up and invested in, while defenders against AI cyberattacks need to be equipped with the most sophisticated AI-enabled tech, it said. The letter also called on companies and experts to share their expertise. "Share threat intelligence and tested playbooks, and measure progress by how many organizations are protected, how quickly attacks are contained, and whether fixes work," it added. Call to action Every organization needs to prioritize cybersecurity, according to the letter. That might include replacing or upgrading older tech systems that are vulnerable to attack. Specialized cybersecurity firms have an obligation to test defenses against evolving cyber capabilities continually. Governments also have a key role to play in containing cyber threats through coordinated actions and by funding cyber defense strategies at the local, national, and international levels, it added. Lastly, the letter said it is incumbent upon frontrunner AI companies -- including those that signed the document -- to fund training, provide "responsible" access to their models, and adequately secure them.
US judge blocks Pentagon's blacklisting of AI firm Anthropic
A US federal judge has blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of artificial intelligence company Anthropic, ruling that the government acted illegally by punishing the firm for its public safety criticisms. In a scathing 59-page decision issued on Thursday, District Judge Rita Lin overturned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's designation of Anthropic as a national security "supply-chain risk." The court order permanently bars federal agencies from enforcing the sanctions, which had blocked the creator of the Claude AI models from military contracts and threatened billions of dollars in lost business. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," Judge Lin wrote. The high-stakes legal battle erupted after Anthropic refused to allow its technology to be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons, arguing that current AI models remain too unreliable for battlefield deployment. Following the company's stance, the administration labelled the firm a supply-chain risk - marking the first time an American company was targeted under an obscure procurement statute traditionally reserved for foreign sabotage threats. Judge Lin concluded that the Pentagon targeted Anthropic in retaliation for its protected free speech regarding AI safety, violating both First Amendment rights and due process. While Justice Department lawyers argued that the company's restrictions created operational uncertainties for the military, the court dismissed the defence as baseless. Anthropic welcomed the ruling, emphasising its desire to work productively with the government on national security. The Pentagon has not yet issued an immediate comment, though an appeal is widely expected. Legal analysts note that the outcome delivers a major victory for tech firms navigating government contracts and highlights growing friction between private AI developers and military oversight.
Anthropic Launches Claude Team Plan for Global Scientists
* Anthropic launched the Claude Team Plan for Scientists, lowering software barriers for academic researchers worldwide. * Features free Standard seats (normally $20/month) and 80% discounted Premium seats at $15/month (normally $100/month) with 5x usage limits for 12 months. * Enrolled teams gain access to Claude Science, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and native connectors to over 60 scientific databases. * Open to Principal Investigators (PIs) and laboratory leads at accredited universities or non profit research institutions. Anthropic launched the Claude Team Plan for Scientists, offering 10,000 seats, Claude Science access, and up to $50K compute grants for researchers. Eligibility Rules and Built in Tools The plan pairs regular enterprise collaboration features with specialized software which are built for scientific analysis and experimental design. Who Can Apply and Verification Steps The program is open only to accredited universities and non-profit research institutes. The application must be submitted by a Principal Investigator (PI) or equivalent laboratory head, who must provide their institutional affiliation, an official email address, and a brief summary of their current research focus. For-profit corporations, industrial R&D teams, and contract research organizations (CROs) are strictly excluded from the initiative. Once approved, within 5 to 7 business days the PI can invite between 1 and 25 team members to the workspace. Labs requiring larger seat allocations can contact Anthropic directly during onboarding. Claude Science and Core Workspace Features Every account includes full Claude Team features, such as Claude Code, Claude Cowork, single sign-on (SSO), and centralized administrative billing. Under Anthropic's data privacy commitments, research files and prompts are never used to train public AI models. The centerpiece of the plan is Claude Science, a desktop research application in beta for macOS and Linux. It functions as an interactive computational environment that connects to more than 60 scientific databases covering genomics, proteomics, and chemical retrosynthesis. Claude Science automates code execution records so results remain reproducible, manages the handover from local laptops to high performance computing (HPC) clusters, and uses specialized reviewer agents to double-check citations, formulas, and math proofs. Extra Compute Grants and Safety Controls Enrolled laboratories can request additional funding through Anthropic's broader AI for Science program, which offers up to $50,000 in free API and compute credits for research projects. Because frontier models can handle sensitive chemical and biological knowledge, Anthropic maintains strict safety guardrails against risks. The company is working with government agencies and regulatory authorities to create verified access for qualified life sciences professionals. To keep the subsidy active, teams will need to maintain regular activity, as inactive accounts may revert to standard pricing after 90 days.
Judge says Pentagon's measures against Anthropic were 'illegal and baseless'
By KAITLYN HUAMANI, AP Technology Writer A federal judge has ruled in favor of artificial intelligence company Anthropic in its legal battle against the Pentagon after the government labeled the company as a supply chain risk earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a written order Thursday night that the Pentagon acted illegally by punishing the AI company for its criticism of the Department of Defense's views on AI use. The government is expected to fight the ruling. The dispute between the AI company and the government broke out in February when President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering national security and designated the company a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company's products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones. Lin wrote that the government's actions "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." An Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement that they welcome the judge's ruling: "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the 59-page ruling, Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote that neither the Constitution nor the federal statute the government invoked allows them to "impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views." Anthropic sued the Pentagon over the supply chain risk designation in March for what it called an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology. The legal challenge intensified an unusually public dispute over how AI can be used in warfare and mass surveillance. Anthropic's primary tech industry rival, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, made its own deal to work with the Pentagon just hours after the government punished Anthropic for its stance. Anthropic and OpenAI are each ramping up for buzzy initial public offerings. Anthropic has also filed a separate and narrower case that is still pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. That case involves a different rule the Pentagon is using to try to declare Anthropic a supply chain risk. Earlier in the legal proceedings, Lin had temporarily blocked the Pentagon from labeling the company as a supply chain risk and blocked enforcement of Trump's social media directive ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic and its chatbot Claude. In a hearing July 30, Lin had said that the government's position was "really troubling" to her and that it seemed "at odds to me with the First Amendment." She also said she believed the record had "gotten worse for the government" over time. In that same hearing, Department of Justice lawyers argued that the nature of AI models is "so staggeringly enormous and opaque" that the Defense Department cannot evaluate it in the same way it would a physical piece of hardware. Anthropic lawyer Michael Mongan said in that hearing that the government's actions "profoundly harm Anthropic" and that they "threaten more broadly to chill speech and debate on a very important issue."
Anthropic's $7 Billion Chip Plan Takes a New Turn
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Anthropic seems bent on reducing its reliance on externally sourced AI processors, even if a big purchase doesn't materialize.Reuters reported that the developer of Claude had been in talks to acquire AI chip startup MatX for almost $7 billion, although the discussions then pivoted to a possible cooperation.MatX was formed by ex-Google tensor processing unit engineers and is building chips to train massive AI models. The business is currently raising further money at a valuation of around $4 billion. Anthropic's appeal is simple.The corporation might get more control over cost and performance by building custom silicon, as demand for Claude increases. Anthropic has already recruited veterans from Google and OpenAI and grown its internal silicon team.Meanwhile, the corporation is spending much on outside computers. Anthropic aims to spend $36 billion on Google AI chips and has signed a $45 billion cloud-computing deal with Nscale, highlighting the huge cost of securing enough infrastructure to train and run frontier models.Another route for Anthropic to develop out more of that tech on its own might be a MatX relationship. The acquisition may have hit a snag, but Anthropic's push into bespoke chips certainly hasn't.
Anthropic's $7 Billion Chip Plan Takes a New Turn
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Anthropic seems bent on reducing its reliance on externally sourced AI processors, even if a big purchase doesn't materialize.Reuters reported that the developer of Claude had been in talks to acquire AI chip startup MatX for almost $7 billion, although the discussions then pivoted to a possible cooperation.MatX was formed by ex-Google tensor processing unit engineers and is building chips to train massive AI models. The business is currently raising further money at a valuation of around $4 billion. Anthropic's appeal is simple.The corporation might get more control over cost and performance by building custom silicon, as demand for Claude increases. Anthropic has already recruited veterans from Google and OpenAI and grown its internal silicon team.Meanwhile, the corporation is spending much on outside computers. Anthropic aims to spend $36 billion on Google AI chips and has signed a $45 billion cloud-computing deal with Nscale, highlighting the huge cost of securing enough infrastructure to train and run frontier models.Another route for Anthropic to develop out more of that tech on its own might be a MatX relationship. The acquisition may have hit a snag, but Anthropic's push into bespoke chips certainly hasn't.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 9:41 PM.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 6:41 PM.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 8:41 PM.
Anthropic weighed US$7 billion MatX purchase in push to reduce Nvidia reliance: sources
[SAN FRANCISCO] Anthropic discussed buying artificial intelligence chip startup MatX for roughly US$7 billion, seeking to accelerate efforts to develop custom hardware for its fast-growing AI business, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The merger talks, which a third person said have evolved into a discussion about a partnership, underscore the AI lab's ambition to secure the resources and talent needed to build its own chips. The goal is to help Anthropic accelerate its in-house chip development. Reuters is reporting on the discussions for the first time but could not learn why the talks are no longer active. MatX, founded by former Google tensor processing unit (TPU) engineers, is now seeking to raise new capital at a valuation of about US$4 billion, one of the people said, requesting anonymity to discuss private matters. Anthropic declined to comment on deal talks with MatX. MatX did not respond to a request for comment. Chip plans on road to IPO As Anthropic scales its Claude family of AI models, the company is looking to produce hardware that can fulfill its voracious appetite for data crunching and reduce its reliance on chips produced by Nvidia. Anthropic, which is expected to list in 2026, has hired engineering and executive talent to accelerate the chip design process, which could take years. Anthropic's IPO, expected months after SpaceX went public with a US$1 trillion valuation, will chase a valuation of US$2 trillion, which hinges on a 2028 revenue figure of as much as US$200 billion, Reuters reported earlier in August. Anthropic said it is expanding an in-house silicon team to design custom chips that will allow Claude models to run faster and more efficiently. It also plans to keep a multi-chip approach by working with providers from Nvidia to Google. Designing chips is expensive and time-consuming. It can take a year or more to produce a viable piece of hardware, and design costs for a single generation run in the hundreds of millions of dollars. An acquisition of an AI chip startup such as MatX would give Anthropic in-house design expertise and could help lower costs over the longer term, the people said. MatX has been working on a chip that would be useful for building large AI models in a process called training. Anthropic plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to rent computing power from cloud providers and also plans to buy chips directly. It plans to buy US$36 billion worth of Google's AI chips, and signed a US$45 billion deal to rent AI cloud computing power from Nscale. It agreed to pay SpaceX US$1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for computing capacity across its data centre clusters. D with other AI chip startups The discussions with MatX also suggest Anthropic may be interested in producing a training chip, while other chip startups and rival OpenAI pursue processors better suited to generating responses from chatbots, a process known as inference. Anthropic could elect to produce an inference chip as well, the sources said. In recent weeks, Anthropic held meetings with a range of AI chip startups. It has not yet elected to make an acquisition. The meetings are an attempt by Anthropic's engineers and executives to understand the current range of chip design approaches. On Aug 22, Anthropic hired Google chip veteran Amir Salek as part of the company's push into hardware. In June, the AI lab hired former OpenAI chip engineer Clive Chan who worked on the OpenAI chip unveiled earlier in 2026. The leading AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI have become increasingly focused on custom chips, which can be tailored to their models and workloads. Through this, they hope to create significant performance and economic advantages. At a conference on Wednesday (Aug 26), OpenAI boasted that its first custom chip called Jalapeno outperformed a similar processor made by Nvidia. OpenAI executives noted that the chip was more energy efficient in performing inference calculations. Making a custom chip may also help Anthropic hedge against the tight supply of Nvidia's processors, which Nvidia said in a conference call on Wednesday would be in short supply through 2027. Google has developed TPUs, while Amazon has built its Trainium and Inferentia chips. Anthropic was one of the first companies to run its models on hardware from several vendors including Nvidia, Google and Amazon. The company has been seeking more computing capacity to meet surging demand for its models, including through a deal with SpaceX to use its Colossus 1 facility, which houses more than 220,000 Nvidia chips. REUTERS
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 7:41 PM.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 6:32 PM.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis)
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 9:32 PM.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuitpending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis)
Judge Rules Trump Administration's Blacklisting of Anthropic Was Illegal
Sign up for the On Tech newsletter. Get our best tech reporting from the week. Get it sent to your inbox. The Trump administration acted illegally when it labeled the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic a security risk and barred the company from working with the U.S. government, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. Judge Rita Lin of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California wrote in her 59-page ruling that the government had unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic "for constitutionally protected expressive activities" after the A.I. company spoke out about how its technology should be used. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. In a statement, Anthropic said it was "pleased the court has ruled that this supply-chain risk designation was unlawful." "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness A.I. for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology," the statement added. The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ruling caps the first of two lawsuits that Anthropic filed in March in response to the Trump administration's action. The second lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is ongoing. The Trump administration could appeal Judge Lin's ruling or wait for a decision in the second lawsuit before taking action, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The San Francisco ruling is the latest chapter in the fight between the Trump administration and Anthropic, which is heading toward what may be the biggest-ever initial public offering. The two sides came to blows at the start of the year over a $200 million contract to provide the Pentagon with A.I. technology on classified systems. Anthropic, which is based in San Francisco, insisted that its technology not be used in mass surveillance of Americans or for autonomous lethal weapons. The Pentagon said a private company could not establish policy for the U.S. government. The two sides could not come to an agreement. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then announced that Anthropic was a "supply chain risk," a formal designation that had previously been used against foreign companies that the government deemed a national security risk. The designation meant no contractor or supplier that works with the military can do business with Anthropic. On March 9, Anthropic filed two lawsuits to challenge the government designation, arguing that the legal statutes for labeling a company a supply chain risk were narrow and did not apply to American firms. The company also said the label was ideologically motivated to penalize Anthropic, and that the company's First Amendment rights were being violated. Before her ruling, Judge Lin had said the Pentagon's argument that Anthropic's public criticism of the government justified banning the A.I. company from federal work was "really troubling." She also said she saw no evidence to the government's claims that Anthropic could "flip some kind of kill switch" to potentially disable or alter its A.I. models during war.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27 - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. REUTERS
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Government * Constitutional Law * Civil Rights * Public Policy Jack Queen Thomson Reuters Jack Queen covers major lawsuits against the Trump administration involving urgent questions of executive power and how their resolution could affect the law and the legal profession in the years to come. Previously, he covered criminal and civil cases against Trump during the interim of his presidential terms, including gavel-to-gavel coverage of his historic hush money trial in New York and his civil fraud trial, which ended in a half-billion-dollar judgment. Jack has also covered high-profile defamation cases including the Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit against Fox News, which settled for $787 million after intense pretrial litigation. Based in New York, he specializes in breaking news as well as analysis, explainers and other explanatory reporting.
