Techmeme
February 28, 2026, 2:50 AM

Top News

@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
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.
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 …
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 …
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.
Sam Altman / @sama:
Sam Altman says OpenAI reached an agreement with the DOD to deploy its models in DOD's classified network and asks DOD to extend those terms to all AI companies  —  Tonight, we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network. In all of our interactions, the DoW displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome. AI safety and wide distribution of
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 …
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 …
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:
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.
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.
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 …
Tim Culpan / Culpium:
Sources: TSMC urges clients to apply for N2 production allocation as far out as Q2 2027, with large capacity allotments nearly sold out for the next two years  —  [Exclusive] Clients are being asked to finalize their requirements into mid 2027, with larger customers already booking capacity over the next two to three years.
Fast Company:
A look at a local group's lawsuit against Micron over its $100B New York manufacturing complex, alleging a rushed permitting process and environmental review  —  Lawsuit over Micron's massive Syracuse project raises concerns about toxic risks and alleges a rushed environmental review.

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Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
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