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February 27, 2026, 9:20 PM
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@secwar:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directs the DOD to designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk, barring military contractors from doing business with the company  —  This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon. Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted
Axios:
President Trump calls Anthropic a “radical left, woke company” and says he is directing every federal agency in the US to stop using its products  —  The Trump administration has decided to blacklist Anthropic in the most consequential and controversial policy decision to date …
More: New York Times, CNBC, Financial Times, Washington Post, PYMNTS.com, Politico, SiliconANGLE, DatacenterDynamics, The Register, Tom's Hardware, XDA Developers, Video - David Imel, Axios, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Decrypt, San Francisco Chronicle, Breitbart, Mission Local, The Information, The Verge, Los Angeles Times, FedScoop, Read Max, Reuters, The Hill, Dow Jones Newswires, USA Today, The San Francisco Standard, Washington Times, The Decoder, Breaking Defense, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Politico, Fast Company, Bloomberg, InfoRiskToday.com, Scripps News, Raw Story, nextpit, NOTUS, eWeek, The Post Millennial, Crypto Briefing, Anthropic, and CBS News
X: @petehegseth, @vikhyatk, @deanwball, @senwarren, @erikvoorhees, @s_oheigeartaigh, @davidlawler10, @chrisharihar, @scaling01, @hadas_gold, @danprimack, @vikhyatk, @dee_bosa, @sporadica, @kevinroose, @govsherrillnj, @hamandcheese, @tedlieu, @adamkovac, @alexbores, @danprimack, @luke_metro, @kevinroose, @charliebul58993, @liminal_warmth, @alvinhsia, @hedgeyecomm, @s_oheigeartaigh, @lulumeservey, @terronk, @powerbottomdad1, @hadas_gold, @scaling01, @m_ccuri, @jhweissmann, @kimmonismus, @jigarshahdc, @deanwball, @headinthebox, @hamburger, @markwarner, @seconds_0, @aakashgupta, @jakuuire, @vikhyatk, @josephpolitano, @petereharrell, @tysonbrody, @danprimack, @dowresponse, and @danprimack.  LinkedIn: Alex Kantrowitz
Bluesky: @davidimel.com, @cara.city, @dorismatsui, @seldo.com, @fry69.dev, and @houseforeign.  Truth Social: @realDonaldTrump …
Forums: r/politics, r/BBAI, r/Anthropic, and r/technology
Anthropic:
Anthropic says it'll challenge “any supply chain risk designation in court” and that the designation would only affect contractors' use of Claude on DOD work  —  Earlier today, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth shared on X that he is directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk.
Washington Post:
Sources detail how the standoff between the Pentagon and Anthropic escalated after discussions about using Claude during hypothetical nuclear missile attacks  —  Start-up Anthropic and the U.S. military are careening toward a clash over government use of artificial intelligence — and whether it should be allowed to kill.
Sharon Goldman / Fortune:
Source: Sam Altman told employees the DOD is willing to let OpenAI build its own “safety stack” and won't force OpenAI to comply if its model refuses a task  —  Sam Altman told OpenAI employees at an all-hands meeting on Friday afternoon that a potential agreement is emerging …
Maria Curi / Axios:
Source: the DOD appears to have accepted OpenAI's safety red lines, which were similar to Anthropic's, to deploy OpenAI's tech in classified settings  —  - Now, the department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, appears to have accepted OpenAI's similar conditions.
Axios:
Sam Altman says OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines with respect to AI use by the military, which are “an issue for the whole industry”  —  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic …
Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
Note to staff: Sam Altman says OpenAI seeks a DOD deal, except for use cases like domestic surveillance, and wants to “help de-escalate” DOD-Anthropic fight  —  Anthropic has spent weeks at odds with the Pentagon over the scope of how its Claude AI tools can be used
CNBC:
OpenAI raised $110B at a $730B pre-money valuation, up from $500B in a secondary financing in Oct.; Amazon invested $50B, Nvidia and SoftBank invested $30B each  —  OpenAI announced a $110 billion funding round on Friday, a financing that's more than double the size of its last raise a year ago …
OpenAI:
OpenAI says ChatGPT has 900M+ weekly active users, 50M+ consumer subscribers, and weekly Codex users have more than tripled since the start of the year to 1.6M  —  AI demand is surging across consumers, developers, and businesses.  Meeting that demand and providing everyone access …
About Amazon:
Amazon will invest $15B in OpenAI initially, followed by $35B if certain conditions are met; OpenAI commits to consuming ~2 GW of Trainium capacity through AWS  —  Amazon Web Services (AWS) and OpenAI will co-create a Stateful Runtime Environment powered by OpenAI models …
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
OpenAI fired an employee for insider trading on prediction markets like Polymarket; Unusual Whales has flagged 77 suspected insider trades around OpenAI events  —  Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi are big business, and some Big Tech employees are testing boundaries by making trades based on insider knowledge.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: multiple federal agencies raised concerns about Grok's safety and reliability in recent months, before DOD approved Grok for use in classified settings  —  Warnings about xAI's safety and reliability preceded Pentagon decision to approve Grok for use in classified settings.
Bloomberg:
Two coalitions of workers, including employees of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, ask their companies to join Anthropic in refusing DOD's demands  —  Anthropic PBC got a vote of support from Silicon Valley workers for its increasingly contentious public-relations battle with the Pentagon …
Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Letter: 100+ Google DeepMind and other AI employees urge Jeff Dean to block US military deals that use Gemini for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Dell stock closes up 22%, its biggest single-day gain since March 1, 2024, after the company gave an outlook for sales of its AI servers that exceeded estimates  —  Dell Technologies Inc. shares jumped the most in two years after the company gave an outlook for sales of its artificial intelligence servers …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Paramount agrees to acquire WBD, paying $31 per share in cash, giving WBD an enterprise value of $110B; Paramount paid a $2.8B breakup fee to Netflix  —  Netflix backed away from its $87.2 billion deal on Thursday. … The two companies formally unveiled the deal Friday after Netflix formally bowed …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A federal judge issues a preliminary injunction blocking Virginia from enforcing a new law restricting children's social media use, on First Amendment grounds  —  A federal judge on Friday blocked Virginia from enforcing a new law that aimed to protect children from being addicted to social media …
The Atlantic:
Court docs from a New Mexico trial reveal internal divisions at Meta as Instagram teen safety initiatives conflicted with growth and engagement goals  —  Not so long ago, Mark Zuckerberg was working in overdrive to convince the world that his company was doing everything it could to protect children.
Financial Times:
Sources: DeepSeek plans to release its multimodal model V4 next week and worked with Huawei and Chinese AI chipmaker Cambricon to optimize V4 for their products  —  Chinese AI group has worked with Huawei to cut reliance on Nvidia chips  —  Eleanor Olcott in Istanbul and Zijing Wu in Sapporo

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From Mediagazer

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: Byron Allen sold his 10.7% Starz stake over August and September, netting a bit less than $45M; he acquired it from Steve Mnuchin's Liberty 77 for $25M

Wall Street Journal:
MGM Resorts says talks with People Incorporated are over, after each weighed buying the other; MGM amended its voting deal with People, which owns ~27% of MGM

Reuters:
Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta plans to shut down after 30+ years, following pressure from Russian authorities and the persecution of its reporters

More News

Earlier Picks

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Security researchers detail AirSnitch, a series of attacks that bypass Wi-Fi client isolation, enabling machine-in-the-middle attacks in modern Wi-Fi networks
Luke Barr / ABC News:
CISA's interim director Madhu Gottumukkala is reassigned as DHS' director of strategic implementation; executive assistant director Nick Andersen will take over
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