Anthropic announced Thursday that it is partnering with data mining company Palantir and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies with access to Anthropic's Claude family of AI models.
The news comes as a growing number of AI vendors look to sign contracts with U.S. defense customers for strategic and financial reasons. Meta recently revealed that it is offering its Llama model to defense partners, while OpenAI is seeking a closer relationship with the Department of Defense.
Kate Earle Jensen, director of sales at Anthropic, said the company's collaboration with Palantir and AWS will “practicalize the use of Claude” within Palantir's platform by leveraging AWS hosting. Claude, which became available on Palantir's platform earlier this month, is now available in Palantir Impact Level 6 (IL6), Palantir's defense-certified environment hosted on AWS infrastructure.
The Department of Defense's IL6 is reserved for systems that contain data deemed critical to national security and require “maximum protection” against unauthorized access or tampering. Information within IL6 systems can reach the level of “secret'', which is just one step short of top secret.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of bringing responsible AI solutions to America's classified environments, enhancing analytical capabilities and operational efficiency in critical government operations,” said Jensen. “Access to Claude within Palantir on AWS will equip U.S. defense and intelligence organizations with powerful AI tools that can rapidly process and analyze vast amounts of complex data. It dramatically improves intelligence analysis, empowers authorities to participate in the decision-making process, streamlines resource-intensive tasks, and improves operational efficiency across departments.”
This summer, Anthropic introduced select Claude models to GovCloud on AWS, demonstrating its ambition to grow its public sector customer base. (GovCloud is an AWS service designed for U.S. government cloud workloads.) Anthropic positions itself as a more secure vendor than OpenAI. However, the company's terms of service stipulate that the company is allowed to perform tasks such as “legally authorized foreign intelligence analysis,” “identifying covert influence or sabotage activities,” and “providing advance warning of potential military activity.” The use of AI is permitted.
There is certainly a growing interest in AI among government agencies. A March 2024 analysis by the Brookings Institution found that AI-related government contracts jumped 1,200%. However, some branches, such as the U.S. military, have been slow to adopt this technology and are skeptical about its ROI.
Anthropic, which recently expanded into Europe, is said to be negotiating a new funding round at a valuation of up to $40 billion. The company has raised approximately $7.6 billion to date, including forward commitments. The company's biggest investor so far is Amazon.