The end of voluntary pauses

Transformer Weekly: Anthropic vs the Pentagon, Trump’s power pledge, and Meta’s chip deals

The end of voluntary pauses Transformer Weekly: Anthropic vs the Pentagon, OpenAI raises $110b, and Trump’s power pledge Shakeel Hashim , Veronica Irwin , and Celia Ford Feb 27, 2026 10 1 Share Welcome to Transformer, your weekly briefing of what matters in AI. And if you’ve been forwarded this email, click here to subscribe and receive future editions. NEED TO KNOW Pentagon CTO Emil Michael called Dario Amodei “a liar [with] a God-complex” after Anthropic refused the Pentagon’s demands to use Claude for “all lawful uses.” OpenAI raised $110b at a $730b valuation . AI companies and hyperscaler

related reading

• AI populism's safety problemtransformernews.ai
• The best AI bill yet may not get fartransformernews.ai
• Is OpenAI changing its tune on AI laws?transformernews.ai
• Clawed - by Dean W. Ball - Hyperdimensionalhyperdimensional.co
• Reflections on OpenAIcalv.info
• Anthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists — LessWronglesswrong.com
• OpenAI to work with Pentagon after Anthropic dropped by Trump over company’s ethics concerns | OpenAI | The Guardiantheguardian.com
• Stratechery by Ben Thompson – On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.stratechery.com
• AI vs. the Pentagon - by Jasmine Sun - @jasmine’s substackjasmi.news
• Anthropic and Donald Trump’s Dangerous Alignment Problem | The New Yorkernewyorker.com
• Anthropic’s Safety Superpower – Stratechery by Ben Thompsonstratechery.com
• Anthropic and the Department of War | Don't Worry About the Vasethezvi.wordpress.com