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Anthropic’s Pentagon deal is a cautionary tale for startups chasing contracts | Equity Podcast

The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two failed to agree on how much control the military should have over its AI models, including its use in autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. As Anthropic’s $200 million contract fell apart, the DoD turned to OpenAI instead, which accepted and then watched…

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The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two failed to agree on how much control the military should have over its AI models, including its use in autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. As Anthropic’s $200 million contract fell apart, the DoD turned to OpenAI instead, which accepted and then watched ChatGPT uninstalls surge 295%. As the stakes keep rising, the question remains: how much unrestricted access should the military have to an AI model?

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into what startups should think about when chasing federal contracts, especially when nobody seems to know what to do with AI in Washington, and more of the week’s headlines.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:29 Paramount acquires Warner Brothers: What do we call it now?

04:51 MyFitnessPal acquires teen-built Cal AI

10:56 Pinterest’s $1B investment: AI growth or shareholder appeasement?

16:04 Anduril’s massive raise despite product questions

20:35 Will startups pause on defense contracts after Anthropic’s Pentagon fight?

25:16 OpenAI vs. Anthropic: Contract terms on autonomous weapons

28:25 The SaaS-pocalypse

32:56 Upcoming events

33:35 Outro

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. @methodlab07

    March 7, 2026 at 8:18 am

    Tech needs to go back to “do no harm” and stand up against authoritarianism

    Reply

    • @DelenaMalan

      March 8, 2026 at 1:45 pm

      That was just a sales tactic. They were in it for the money from the start anyway. The tech industry is not going to save us.

      Reply

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