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WHAT’S AT STAKE TODAY ⚡
- Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI, offers Claude to 'all three branches of government' for $1 🏛️
- How a once-tiny research lab helped Nvidia become a $4 trillion-dollar company 💰
- Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron leaves to join self-driving startup Waabi as COO 🚛
- Anthropic's Claude AI model can now handle longer prompts 📝
- Perplexity offers to buy Chrome for billions more than it's raised 🌐
- Google vet raises $8M for Continua to bring AI agents to group chats 💬
- AI companion apps on track to pull in $120M in 2025 💕
- How to beat AI-driven custom pricing 💡
Anthropic matches OpenAI's $1 government pricing across all three branches.
Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI, offers Claude to ‘all three branches of government’ for $1
The AI arms race for government contracts has intensified dramatically this week. Just seven days after OpenAI announced it would provide ChatGPT Enterprise to federal executive branch agencies for $1 per year per agency, Anthropic has launched an aggressive counter-offensive that significantly raises the competitive stakes.
On Tuesday, Anthropic announced it would match OpenAI's $1 pricing strategy but with a crucial expansion: while OpenAI targeted only the executive branch, Anthropic is offering its Claude AI models to all three branches of the U.S. government, including legislative and judiciary branches. This bold move represents a strategic escalation designed to capture a broader share of federal AI adoption.
The timing is no coincidence. Both companies recently gained approval as vendors on the General Services Administration's list of authorized AI providers for civilian federal agencies, alongside Google DeepMind. This certification opened the door for direct government sales, triggering the current price war. Industry observers are now watching to see if Google will respond with its own competitive offering.
"We believe the U.S. public sector should have access to the most advanced AI capabilities to tackle complex challenges, from scientific research to constituent services," Anthropic stated. "By combining broad accessibility with uncompromising security standards, we're helping ensure AI serves the public interest."
Anthropic's package includes both Claude for Enterprise and Claude for Government, with the latter specifically designed to meet FedRAMP High security standards. FedRAMP High represents one of the most stringent security baselines within the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, enabling federal workers to handle sensitive unclassified data safely.
This security certification gives Anthropic a significant competitive advantage. The company can offer multicloud access through partnerships with AWS, Google Cloud, and Palantir, providing government agencies with greater infrastructure flexibility and data control. In contrast, OpenAI's current FedRAMP High offering is exclusively tied to Microsoft's Azure Government Cloud, potentially limiting options for agencies prioritizing data sovereignty and operational flexibility.
The competition extends beyond pricing and security features. Anthropic is positioning itself as a comprehensive solution provider, offering dedicated technical support to help agencies integrate AI tools into existing workflows. The company already has successful government implementations to showcase, including partnerships with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for accelerating scientific research and the District of Columbia Department of Health for multilingual resident services.
Both companies have broader ambitions beyond this pricing competition. Along with xAI and Google, both Anthropic and OpenAI have received up to $200 million in Department of Defense funding to develop AI capabilities for national security applications. However, this civilian agency push represents an effort to establish AI as essential infrastructure across all government operations, from scientific research to public health services.
The competitive landscape reflects the immense strategic value of government contracts in the AI sector. Federal adoption not only provides immediate revenue opportunities but also serves as a credibility signal for private sector customers. Government use cases often require the highest security standards and reliability, making federal endorsement a powerful marketing tool.
OpenAI appears to recognize the infrastructure limitations of its Azure-dependent approach and is actively working to diversify its cloud partnerships. This shift toward multicloud capabilities suggests the company understands that infrastructure flexibility may be crucial for winning large-scale government deployments.
The year-long duration of these promotional offerings indicates both companies are making substantial short-term investments to capture market position. At $1 per agency annually, neither company expects immediate profitability from these contracts. Instead, they're betting on long-term adoption, future contract renewals at market rates, and the demonstration effect of successful government implementations.
This aggressive pricing competition benefits government agencies significantly, providing access to cutting-edge AI capabilities at unprecedented costs. However, it also raises questions about market sustainability and whether such pricing can continue beyond the initial promotional periods.
As this competition unfolds, the real winners may be federal agencies gaining access to advanced AI tools that can transform public services, accelerate research, and improve government efficiency at minimal cost. The long-term impact on the AI industry's competitive dynamics remains to be seen.
Big investors are buying this “unlisted” stock
When the founder who sold his last company to Zillow for $120M starts a new venture, people notice. That’s why the same VCs who backed Uber, Venmo, and eBay also invested in Pacaso.
Disrupting the real estate industry once again, Pacaso’s streamlined platform offers co-ownership of premier properties, revamping the $1.3T vacation home market.
And it works. By handing keys to 2,000+ happy homeowners, Pacaso has already made $110M+ in gross profits in their operating history.
Now, after 41% YoY gross profit growth last year alone, they recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.
Nvidia's research lab evolved from 12-person graphics team to AI powerhouse.
How a once-tiny research lab helped Nvidia become a $4 trillion-dollar company
When Bill Dally joined Nvidia's research lab in 2009, it had just 12 people focused on ray tracing. Today, it employs over 400 researchers who helped transform Nvidia into a $4 trillion AI powerhouse. Under Dally's leadership as chief scientist, the lab expanded beyond graphics into AI GPUs a decade before the current boom. Now they're targeting robotics and physical AI. Led by VP Sanja Fidler, the team develops simulation technologies and world AI models to create synthetic data for robot training, though commercial humanoid robots remain years away.
⚡ More AI Bites
- 🚚💼 Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron joins self-driving startup Waabi as chief operating officer. Freight exec powers up autonomous trucking!
- 🤖📝 Anthropic's Claude AI model can now handle longer prompts. AI gets expanded attention span!
- 💰🌐 Perplexity offers to buy Chrome for billions more than it's raised. Search startup makes ambitious browser bid!
- 💬🤖 Google vet raises $8M for Continua to bring AI agents to group chats. Chat rooms get robotic assistants!
- 💕📱 AI companion apps on track to pull in $120M in 2025. Digital relationships become big business!
- 💸🛡️ How to beat AI-driven custom pricing. Consumer defense against algorithmic price targeting!
What if your story was your sales strategy?
This week, I sat down with Maury Rogow, Hollywood producer and branding mastermind behind $2.5B in brand growth.
We talked about why the brands that feel effortless aren’t the loudest — they’re just the most aligned.
👉 Watch the episode here⚡ Trends for the Future
ChatGPT’s model picker is back, and it’s complicated
GPT-5's promised unified AI experience fails, forcing OpenAI to restore complexity.
When OpenAI launched GPT-5 last week, the company promised it would simplify the ChatGPT experience by acting as a unified AI model with an automatic router to determine the best responses. This approach was designed to eliminate the complicated model picker menu that CEO Sam Altman publicly despises.
However, GPT-5 has not delivered on this unified vision. Altman announced on X Tuesday that the company introduced new "Auto," "Fast," and "Thinking" settings that users can select from the model picker. While the Auto setting functions like the originally announced router, OpenAI is also providing options to bypass it entirely, allowing direct access to different AI models.
The situation became more complex when OpenAI restored several legacy models including GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, and o3 that were deprecated just last week. GPT-4o now appears in the model picker by default, with other models available through ChatGPT's settings.
Altman acknowledged they are working on updating GPT-5's personality to feel warmer than the current version but less annoying than GPT-4o. He emphasized that the company needs to focus on per-user customization of model personality based on lessons learned from the recent rollout.
The deprecation of popular models like GPT-4o sparked significant user backlash, as people had grown unexpectedly attached to specific AI personalities and response styles. This attachment phenomenon is relatively new and poorly understood, as demonstrated by hundreds of people holding a funeral for Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet when it went offline.
GPT-5's router also experienced technical issues on launch day, leading users to question its performance compared to previous models. The complexity of routing prompts to appropriate AI models requires split-second decisions while aligning with user preferences and question types.
ChatGPT's model picker remains as complicated as ever, suggesting GPT-5's router hasn't universally satisfied users as hoped. The rollout has been rougher than expected, falling short of the high expectations set by GPT-4's successful launch. OpenAI clearly has more work ahead in aligning AI models to individual user preferences.
⚡ You’re Smart. Strategic. Intentional. So Let’s Be Real:
Where Are You Holding Back— On Purpose?
Every smart operator has something they’re intentionally avoiding.
Not because they’re lazy — but because it’s risky, unknown, or just... a bit *uncomfortable*.
So what’s that thing for you?
That one decision, move, or experiment you know would push you forward — but you’ve been choosing not to do it.
Tell us — and we’ll share a tactical POV or tool to help you rethink it.
No fluff. Just momentum.
AI is the great multiplier of human potential, giving us the ability to achieve extraordinary breakthroughs and create a future where innovation serves everyone.
Sherry Suyu is an astrophysicist and cosmologist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics who uses advanced computational methods and AI to study dark matter, dark energy, and the expansion of the universe. Her groundbreaking research in gravitational lensing and cosmological modeling has advanced our understanding of fundamental physics, and she advocates for using AI and machine learning to accelerate scientific discovery and solve complex problems in space science.
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What if your story were your sales strategy? This week, I sat down with Maury Rogow, a Hollywood producer and branding mastermind behind $2.5 billion in brand growth. We talked about why the brands that feel effortless aren’t the loudest — they’re just the most aligned.
👉 Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/AYv-75HoYZc?si=GSNhzfspEw2sLtpf
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