Frontier Labs Enter the Defense Perimeter
Narrative
Anthropic revised elements of its original safety positioning following expanded cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense. The agreement formalizes structured access to Claude models for defined defense-related applications. The development follows a previously announced $200 million DoD contract and broader discussions around supply chain classification.
Reality
Announced February 26, 2026. Extends December 2025 government access agreements into a more explicit defense integration framework.
Implication
The boundary between civilian AI research and national security infrastructure continues to compress. Safety is no longer defined only by internal research commitments, but by geopolitical alignment. Frontier capability now sits inside state-level strategic planning.