Anthropic challenges OpenAI by offering Claude AI to all three branches of US government for $1

Anthropic AI

Just a week after OpenAI announced that ChatGPT Enterprise would be available to the entire federal executive branch at $1 per agency per year, Anthropic has responded by extending a similar offer—but with a broader reach. On Tuesday, Anthropic revealed plans to provide its Claude AI models to all three branches of the US government—executive, legislative, and judiciary—also for $1, for a one-year period.

This move follows the addition of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to the General Services Administration’s approved AI vendor list, enabling them to sell AI services to civilian federal agencies. TechCrunch has sought comment from Google regarding its response to these competitive offers.

Anthropic’s offer aims to expand its presence in federal AI usage beyond OpenAI’s executive branch focus. The company said, “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.” It emphasised combining accessibility with strict security standards to ensure AI serves public interests.

Anthropic will provide two versions of Claude: Claude for Enterprise and Claude for Government. The latter meets FedRAMP High requirements, a rigorous security standard within the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for handling sensitive unclassified government data. This certification allows federal employees to safely use Claude for sensitive workloads.

The company also committed to offering technical support to assist agencies in integrating AI tools into their workflows.

Anthropic, alongside OpenAI, xAI, and Google, has received up to $200 million from the Department of Defense to apply AI in national security. Yet Anthropic clearly aims to broaden its government footprint, including science research and health services. The firm noted that Claude is already in use at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to accelerate scientific discovery and by the District of Columbia’s Department of Health to provide multilingual health services.

Anthropic attributes its ability to serve government agencies to Claude’s compliance with the highest security standards. Beyond FedRAMP High certification, Claude is accessible through existing secure infrastructures via partnerships with AWS, Google Cloud, and Palantir. This multicloud approach offers agencies more control over data and infrastructure compared to OpenAI’s current FedRAMP High offering, which is tied exclusively to Azure Government Cloud.

While Azure is widely adopted in government, some agencies and security teams may favour the data sovereignty and operational flexibility provided by Anthropic’s multicloud model. OpenAI, however, is working to reduce its reliance on Azure and pursue a more diversified infrastructure strategy.