California government secures half-price access to Anthropic’s Claude AI

Governor Gavin Newsom and Anthropic announced a discounted enterprise agreement allowing California state agencies and local governments to access Anthropic’s Claude AI at half price. The deal includes training and support for state employees to draft documents and analyze information, according to a press release from the Governor’s office.

Governor Newsom framed the agreement as a way to augment, not replace, human work in government. 'AI should not replace the human work of government; it should help our workers move faster, solve problems more effectively, and deliver better results for Californians,' Newsom said in a statement.

The agreement follows a March executive order from Newsom aimed at accelerating the use of AI in government to improve efficiency while maintaining stronger safety standards. Newsom previously stated, 'While others in Washington are designing policy and creating contracts in the shadow of misuse, we’re focused on doing this the right way.'

The state’s approach contrasts with federal scrutiny of Anthropic. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Defense clashed with Anthropic over a contract that would have allowed the agency to deploy Claude for any lawful use. Anthropic sought to include protections against surveillance or autonomous weapons deployment without human oversight, but the Defense Secretary declined, leading the Pentagon to sign with OpenAI instead. The federal government also designated Anthropic a 'supply-chain risk,' restricting its ability to work with other Pentagon contractors.

California’s Chief Information Officer Chris Given told POLITICO that the supply-chain risk designation 'just didn’t come up' during negotiations for the state’s Anthropic contract, underscoring the divergence between state and federal AI policy approaches.