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The Briefing: Anthropic, OpenAI and Pentagon

The Briefing
Before we get to the scheduled events for this coming week—Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, starring SpaceX and Apple's master class in hyping product releases—we should acknowledge just how much of a turn the AI debate has taken from humdrum concerns about spending. ͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­͏ ‌     ­
Mar 1, 2026

The Briefing

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Before we get to the scheduled events for this coming week—Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, starring SpaceX, as well as Apple's master class in hyping product releases—we should acknowledge just how much of a turn the AI debate has taken from humdrum concerns about spending. Friday night's decision by the Trump administration to declare war on Anthropic, a day before it went to war with Iran, puts the spotlight on how the military wants to use AI. (This Wall Street Journal story on how Anthropic tech was used in the Iran attack is worth reading). And judging by Anthropic's statements on Friday, it's likely to sue the government in the next few days.

Also in the spotlight this week will be the question of how OpenAI came to terms with the Pentagon, hours after the Trump administration declared Anthropic a "supply chain risk," essentially treating the AI firm as a hostile foreign power. In this blog post on Saturday, OpenAI says it is following the same red lines as Anthropic—its tech is not to be used for mass domestic surveillance or to direct autonomous weapons. But it is clear from both companies' public statements that there is a big difference in how they view what the Pentagon wants.

According to OpenAI, its contract with the Pentagon states that its AI system can't be used for "unconstrained monitoring" of Americans' private information "as consistent" with existing laws and executive orders. But Anthropic's statement last week on the issue said that existing laws allow the government to buy "detailed records" of Americans' movements and digital behavior, and AI could assemble this into a "comprehensive picture of any person's life." In other words, Anthropic thinks existing laws effectively allow for mass domestic surveillance, which it doesn't want to enable. (The Atlantic went deeper on that point today.)

OpenAI says its "safety stack"—technology to ensure its AI is operating safely—along with the language of its contract and existing laws means the government won't be able to use its AI for mass domestic surveillance or to power autonomous weapons. (For one thing, its tech will run only on the cloud, which limits how it can be used.) Fair enough. Let's hope OpenAI knows what it's doing. (For our in-depth look at the Anthropic-Pentagon standoff, see here).

Hola from Barcelona, where tech and telecom executives and regulators are convening for this week's Mobile World Congress. This year, the star of the show is SpaceX. CEO Elon Musk himself isn't on the schedule, but SpaceX is sending several senior executives, including President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell and Starlink chief Michael Nicolls, who are set to deliver a joint keynote Monday morning. 

Dozens of other SpaceXers will also be in attendance, including salespeople and policy staff who will fan out across the sprawling convention center to schmooze with potential customers and regulators from around the world, such as Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission head, and Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president of European Commission Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. It's a bigger presence than SpaceX has had at MWC in previous years. That makes sense. 

Starlink, the satellite broadband and mobile connectivity service responsible for most of SpaceX's revenue, needs regulators on its side so it can launch in as much of the world as possible, including key markets like India and much of Africa, where it hasn't yet won approval despite years of effort. At the same time, SpaceX needs to convince more telecom companies that Starlink direct-to-cell service is worth paying for. (For more on Starlink, check out this deep dive we published last week.) 

Elevating these ambitions in importance is the fact that SpaceX has merged with Elon Musk's cash-bleeding xAI, and the combined company is gearing up to go public this summer. Despite Musk's recent talk of orbital data centers and factories on the moon, Starlink is far and away SpaceX's biggest business. Starlink's efforts to build a global business are critical to SpaceX's growth and to paying for xAI. 

Also attending MWC is Amazon's Starlink competitor, Leo, which says it's planning to start offering service to consumers in the U.S. and other countries in 2026, as well as the likes of Eutelsat, AST SpaceMobile and Apple's direct-to-cell partner, Globalstar. Another intriguing company that's sending several staff is Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology, which is building a Chinese Starlink rival called Qianfan. 

Anyone considering buying into the SpaceX IPO should pay attention to the news coming out of MWC. This week is the company's chance to prove just how durable a lead its cash cow, Starlink, has over its rivals. —Theo Wayt

It's no secret that the news media often seems to function as a public relations arm of corporate America. That's more true of Apple than of any other company. Even an Apple announcement of a coming announcement gets reported. So prepare for a deluge of product hype masquerading as news this week.

A couple of weeks ago, Apple announced events on March 4 in New York, Shanghai and London, where it's expected to announce new laptops and a new version of its small iPhone, the 17e. Even for the tech reporters who normally eat up Apple product news, this is pretty ho-hum stuff—hence the three-city extravaganza. 

And that's not all. On Thursday, CEO Tim Cook teased something coming on Monday. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple plans a series of announcements throughout the week. You might say there's an inverse relationship between the energy Apple is putting into this event and its actual newsworthiness.

We're nearing the tail end of earnings season. The big name reporting this week is chip designer Broadcom, which works with companies such as Google on their AI chip designs. While that business has provided a big boost for Broadcom, other parts of its business aren't doing as well. In the last quarter, Broadcom's revenue rose 28% even though AI chip revenue ballooned 74%. Analysts are expecting a similar result for the January quarter. Here are the details, courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Broadcom (Wednesday)

Revenue: $19.113 billion +28%

EPS $1.40 +23%

• President Donald Trump said on Friday afternoon that he was directing every U.S. federal agency to stop using Anthropic's technology, further escalating a feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon over Anthropic's refusal to drop its AI safeguards.

• XAI co-founder Toby Pohlen has left the company just weeks after CEO Elon Musk said he'd expanded Pohlen's responsibilities as part of a broad reorganization of the company. Pohlen, who announced his departure in a post on X, is the latest high-level staffer to leave xAI in recent weeks, following its acquisition by SpaceX.

• Crypto venture firm Paradigm is raising as much as $1.5 billion for a new fund that will invest in broader tech including artificial intelligence and robotics, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Check out our latest episode of TITV in which we unpack our exclusive reporting on Google and Meta's chip deal.

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