Newsom, Anthropic ink deal to expand government use

Governor Gavin Newsom has struck a deal with Anthropic to expand the use of Claude products across California’s government at a discounted cost. The agreement, first shared with POLITICO, would make Claude the first artificial-intelligence tool available to all state agencies and local governments.

It comes amid a monthslong fight between Anthropic and the Trump administration, which restricted the rollout of the company’s most advanced models and labeled it a national supply-chain risk. The deal cuts the AI chatbot’s price in half for state agencies and for cities and counties that opt in, and it includes free workforce training and technical support from Anthropic staff.

Chris Given, California’s chief information officer and director of the state Department of Technology, said many departments are expected to switch to the contract and that the state negotiated the best possible price for them.

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