Tech Brew Ride Home - Anthropic Is Street Legal Again

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

A judge blocked the Pentagon from blacklisting Anthropic, calling the retaliation illegal. OpenAI, Anthropic and 100+ companies warned the AI cyberattack window is closing, Apple TV got pricier again, Stripe walked from PayPal, and a16z raised $1.1B for hardware. Links A US judge blocks the Pentagon from blacklisting Anthropic, ruling that its designation as a supply-chain risk was "illegal and baseless" (Reuters) Judge Rita Lin finds the administration violated Anthropic's First Amendment rights, acting in "unlawful retaliation" for its criticism, and orders the blacklisting guidance rescinded (The Wall Street Journal) OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Microsoft, and 100+ companies warn there is "a limited window" to prepare for AI-enabled cyberattacks and call for "collective action" (Axios) The open letter asks AI labs to hand their best models to hospitals and infrastructure providers and governments to coordinate and fund cyberdefense; signatories include Google, CrowdStrike, Visa, and Mastercard (The New York Times) Apple TV raises prices in the US, with the monthly price up by $2 to $14.99, its fourth increase in four years; the individual Apple One tier rises $2 to $21.95 (Variety) Sources: Advent and Stripe are no longer pursuing a deal to acquire PayPal; the group offered to pay $60.50/share in July, valuing PayPal at $53B (Bloomberg) a16z creates a $1.1B Machine Age fund focusing on hardware to "open the throttle and accelerate the physical buildout of AI" (TechCrunch) Anthropic details Model Hardware Standard, a framework governing how AI agents interact with microscopes, liquid handlers, quantum hardware, and robot arms, going to trusted partners first (Wired) Longreads Home batteries are suddenly cheap and everywhere. Here's why. (TechCrunch) Subscribe to the ad-free feed.

Welcome to the Tech Brewery, right home for Friday, August 28th, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough today. A judge blocked the Pentagon from blacklisting Anthropic. Open AI, Anthropic, and 100 other companies warned the AI cyber attack window is closing. Apple TV got pricier, Stripe walked away from PayPal, A16Z raised $1.1 billion for AI hardware. And of course, the weekend long read suggestions. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Every day shareholders meet to discuss important matters about the companies you invest in. Now you can make your voice heard. 2. Vanguard investor choice makes it easy to set your proxy voting preference for your eligible Vanguard index funds, whether you hold a Vanguard fund directly or through another brokerage firm. All it takes is a few clicks to select your proxy voting preference and be heard on important shareholder topics like executive pay and director elections. Visit vanguard.com slash investor choice. To learn more, it's your shares, it's your voice, it's easy. Vanguard investors own shares of our index funds and those funds own

shares of the companies they invest in. Vanguard Marketing Corporation distributor. A U.S. judge has blocked the Pentagon from blacklisting Anthropic, ruling that its designation as a supply chain risk was, quote, illegal and baseless, quoting the journal. U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin of the Northern District of California, mostly cited with Anthropic in her ruling on the company's March lawsuit against the Trump administration saying the government had erred in its haste to give Anthropic that designation. The government didn't provide evidence that the company was an actual national security risk, Lynn wrote in her decision, but rather acted in unlawful retaliation to Anthropics' pushback against the Pentagon's use of AI. Defendant's

contemporaneous words and deeds confirm that the challenged actions were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropics for its arrogance in criticizing the government, Lynn wrote. She directed the government to rescind all guidance, directives, communications, or instructions to blacklist and label Anthropic a supply chain risk. We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful, and Anthropic spokeswoman said, we remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security, so all Americans benefit from this technology.

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ruling comes at a critical time for Anthropic. The company has vaulted ahead in the AI race by many measures and is barreling toward an initial public offering in which it is aiming for a valuation of about $2 trillion, yet its clashes with the Trump administration have remained a risk. Government lawyers said the Defense Department would be entirely moved off Anthropic models by September 30th. Government correspondence filed as part of the case shows competitors, including OpenAI, are moving to take Anthropics place. Anthropic in June struck an agreement with the administration to release its more powerful models,

Fable and Mythos, after a shutdown caused by security concerns. The U.S. government agencies outside the Defense Department are using those on other tools from Anthropic. Lynn said the continued use of Anthropic models by the government was in conflict with the Pentagon's assertion that the company is a national security risk. Lynn, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Joe Biden, granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction in March to stop parts of the supply chain risk designation and other administration blacklistings. She made clear during court hearings that she was unconvinced and even concerned by the government's legal arguments. At a July hearing, Lynn called the government's

position that it is legally permissible to retaliate against a competitor that publicly criticizes the administration, really troubling and, quote, quite extreme. The administration argued that it hadn't infringed on Anthropics' free speech protections and was within its rights to exercise its authority over a government vendor. The government said Anthropic is an untrustworthy vendor that may surreptitiously modify its models to inhibit military operations. The Department of War needs to trust that its AI vendors are going to be forced. right and honest with the government. Government attorney James Harlow said during court arguments Anthropics Claude model had been widely used by the U.S. military, including in its January

raid in Venezuela and the war with Iran. But after protracted and public negotiations to agree on a new contract to use the AI models in a military setting failed, Anthropics found itself in the Pentagon's crosshairs. Earlier this year, Anthropics sought assurances from the Pentagon that its models wouldn't be used in fully autonomous weapons or for demonstrable. domestic surveillance. The Pentagon pushed back, wanting an agreement in which the military could use the AI in all legal applications and considered Anthropics' demands too restrictive. Anthropics said the government's actions had contributed to the loss of hundreds of millions of of dollars in canceled, truncated, or stalled contracts, end quote.

Open AI, Anthropic, AWS, Microsoft, and more than 100 other companies are warning there is a, quote, limited window to prepare for AI-enabled cyber attacks, and they're calling for collective action, quoting the Times. A wave of cyber attacks driven by artificial intelligence is coming, and companies have a narrow window to defend themselves. That was the message of an open letter published on Thursday by Open AI and more than 100 major technology companies and others. The letter said that AI labs should provide their best AI models to organizations like hospitals and infrastructure providers so they can prepare and that governments should help coordinate and fund cyber defense. The letter's signatories include Google, Microsoft, and Open AIs, arch rival Anthropic, as well as

cybersecurity and financial firms such as CrowdStrike, a company known for investigating cyber attacks against the Democratic National Committee in 2015 and 2016, and credit card providers like Visa and MasterCard. The companies and public services are communities depend on, from hospitals to water treatment plants, to the infrastructure that powers the internet, are at risk, the letter said. AI-enabled cyberattacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable. The letter signaled that major companies are becoming increasingly fearful of the hacking abilities of AI and whether AI labs can fully control the behavior of their models. In recent public statements,

some AI labs have called on governments to regulate them to slow the pace of AI development so the technology's abilities do not outstrip their capacity to control it. The letter follows a spate of cybertecs from AI models, with the models in some cases going rogue. Some tech executives are becoming increasingly concerned about the power of artificial intelligence. Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, said in an interview this month with the New York Times, that addressing these risks should be, quote, the world's top priority. In Thursday's letter, the companies argued that making AI widely available for defense could help fix, quote, weaknesses that have accumulated for years.

If we act decisively, we can use the defender's window to make our digital world much more secure, the letter said, end quote. Apple TV is raising prices in the U.S. with the monthly price going up by $2 to $14.99 per month. Its fourth increase in four years, the individual Apple One tier rises $2 to $21.95 per month. Quoting variety, it's going to cost Americans a few more bucks to watch Ted Lasso and other Apple TV originals. The Tech Giant is hiking the streaming services subscription price yet again, following an

industry-wide trend of regular rate hikes. The subscription price for Apple TV will increase in the U.S. for new and existing subscribers beginning Friday, August 28th. The monthly price is now 1499, up $2 from $12.99, and the annual price is now $119 from $99. Existing subscribers will be notified approximately one month prior to being charged the new price, according to Apple. It's the fourth price increase for Apple TV, formerly known as Apple TV Plus, in four years. The monthly fee has now tripled from the original 2019 launch price of $499 per month when Apple had much more limited content and was trying to amass customers. Along with the Apple TV price hike, the company is increasing the price of the individual tier of Apple One, the discounted bundle with Apple TV,

Apple Music, ICloud, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, and Apple Fitness Plus from 1995 to $2195 per month. Apple's price hikes come as all other major premium video entertainment streamers have also raised their prices in the last two years, including Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Hulu, Paramount Plus, and YouTube Premium. Just earlier this month, NBC Universal's Peacock increased its rates, and ESPN is raising streaming prices as of September 17th. Apple TV now offers more than 300 original TV shows and movies up from just a handful when it first came out of the gate. Popular titles include Comedy Series Ted Lasso, The Studio, and Shrinking, as well as this year's most Emmy-nominated freshman series Widows Bay. Apple TV dramas include the mind-bending thrillers Severance and Pluribus and the award-winning The Morning Show. Original movies on the service include Oscar-winners Koda and Brad Pitt-starer F-1 The Movie, the latter of which is the highest-grossing sports movie of all time at the global box office. In addition, the streamers' customers can watch live sports including Formula One races, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer, end quote.

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Learn more at Intuit.com slash ERP. Bloomberg says that Advent and Stripe are no longer pursuing a deal to acquire PayPal. The group offered to pay $60.50 of share back in July, valuing PayPal at $53 billion. Quote, Bloomberg News first revealed in February that Stripe was considering an acquisition of parts or all of PayPal after a stock slump wiped out a chunk of its value. The takeover interest coupled with second quarter earnings that topped analyst estimates has helped it recover. PayPal shares jumped more than 40% this quarter, giving the company a market value of about $52.6 billion. San Jose, California-based PayPal, ousted former chief

executive officer Alex Chris earlier this year and replaced him with Enrique Lores, who took over the role in March. Lores said he'll set specific financial goals for PayPal, change how the payments, company reports earnings, and assign each line of business a specific revenue target to give investors a better sense of their potential. Keith, Bruyette and Woods analyst Sanjay Sakarni, said in a note that the Advent Stripe bid, quote, had been a source of support for PYPL shares of late and the lack of one will cause weakness. Dan Dolev, an analyst at Miju Securities, said investor focus is likely to shift back to PayPal's slowing fundamentals and growth challenges without a deal. The Wall Street Journal reported this month that PayPal had found Advent and Stripe's

initial bid insufficient and the two sides were negotiating a potential higher price. Advent and Stripe could always opt to come back at a later date if the situation changes. Stripe has separately been pushing deeper into the infrastructure powering the artificial intelligence boom. Earlier this month, it agreed to buy open router a fast-growing gateway that provides access to hundreds of AI models, end quote. has created a $1.1 billion machine age fund focusing on hardware to quote open the throttle and accelerate the physical buildout of AI, quoting TechCrunch. The fund will focus on hardware, bucking the firm's typical focus on the scaling power of software. In a post on the venture capital firm's website, A16Z says the fund will focus on investing in the infrastructure that

powers AI, a swath that includes everything from computer chips and memory to data centers and robots. We need faster, more efficient systems. We need cheaper and higher bandwidth memory across the memory hierarchy. We need faster and more scalable interconnects between nodes and systems. We need power-efficient edge devices for AI to explore and interact with the world. And of course, we need all the cooling materials, electrical and real estate build out to support them. The Post reads, AI is the strongest tool ever developed for solving problems and bestowing abundance, the firm writes, calling its advancement a social and national imperative, end quote. Well, coincidentally enough, quoting Wired.

Anthropic released details today of a new framework designed to help AI agents use physical systems like microscopes, liquid handling equipment, quantum computing hardware, manufacturing machines, and robot arms. The framework called Model Hardware Standard is a set of rules that specify how AI agents should and should not interact with all sorts of hardware. It reflects a growing belief that AI has the potential to revolutionize scientific research and industries like manufacturing if it can venture into the physical world safely. The company says it will work with trusted partners to determine how to maximize safety before making it generally available, though there are potential misuse issues involved, developing biological

weapons, for instance. The company says guardrails built into AI models themselves should prevent bad actors from taking advantage of the new standard for nefarious ends. The impetus is wanting to accelerate science, says Alex Kameni, a quantum, some physicists who co-led the development, how do we close the loop between accelerating literature review and data analysis and bring that power to the experimental world? Several well-funded startups are pursuing a vision for scientific discovery driven by AI agents, including Periodic Labs, Lila Sciences, Edison Scientific, and Discovery Loop,

which was founded by several prominent ex-Google researchers. A key idea is that AI could develop and test scientific hypotheses in a recursive loop that essentially automates scientific discovery. Jonah Kuhl, an experimental biologist who worked on the standard at Anthropics, says that configuring scientific equipment and having it interact with other pieces of hardware typically requires serious expertise. AI could automate much of the complex engineering involved by configuring machines and having them talk to one another.

Anthropic is working with a number of manufacturers to develop the standard. We're starting to see some cases where, you know, you have multiple robotic systems that previously would need bespoke code, Khamini says. Using the new standard, he adds, Claude can view the robot. robots on the factory line and figure out how to optimize behavior. Anthropic previously introduced the model context protocol, which specifies rules for having AI models interact with different software programs, end quote. In the long reads this weekend, home batteries are suddenly cheap and everywhere. Here's why. Quoting TechCrunch, Tesla may have led the pack for years,

but recently it has been feeling the heat from upstarts like base power, which has raised $2 billion in less than a year. The automaker come energy company recently introduced a new power wall battery leasing plan that cuts the monthly price by more than two-thirds an apparent response to all that competition. Just how steep is that price cut? Home batteries typically cost more than $10,000 installed, making them attractive only to people with deep pockets who already have solar panels generating more power than they can use. But now homeowners in Texas can lease either 27 kilowatt hours worth of Tesla power walls for $35 per month or 39.2 kilowatt hours of base power batteries for 19. That kind of pricing is only possible because of two things. Declining battery costs and a

technology known as the virtual power plant or VPP. A VPP aggregates and coordinates distributed energy resources like batteries and in some cases water heaters so that thousands of individual devices behave on the grid like a single large power plant, one that a utility can call on when it needs extra electricity. Companies like Tesla and base power, for example, can use their battery fleets as a VPP to help utilities and grid operators fill in gaps during periods of high demand. The market for this technology is still small, only $7.4 billion today, but it's expected to top $30 billion by 2033, according to Grandview Research. Traditionally, to handle spikes in demand, utilities have had two options. Build expensive, specialized power plants known as peaker plants,

which only run during periods of high demand, or pay large energy users like factories to disconnect for a few hours. Now, they can pay a VPP instead. VPP operators charge the batteries when electricity rates are low, then sell that stored power back to the grid at a profit when demand sends prices soaring. The operator pockets a chunk of those profits, passing some onto consumers in the form of low electricity prices, cheap battery backups, or both.

VPPs also have a speed advantage, unlike building a peaker power plant, which can take years. VPPs can be built in months since installing batteries in people's homes eliminates many land permitting and interconnection headaches. Base power has a deal with CoServe, a North Texas electricity cooperative to build a 100-Magawatt VPP, for example. A traditional 100-mawatt power plant would take two to four years to come online, Pianta said, we're on pace to install that in under 12 months. Because VPPs rely on assets like batteries that are spread out across the grid, near where people actually use electricity, utilities don't have to spend as much building

new power lines and other infrastructure to support them either, end quote. No weekend bonus content for you this weekend. Talk to you on Monday.