Susana Schwartz
In today’s top story, RCRTech looks at the balance between AI safety ethics and national security imperatives, which are being tested this week, as tomorrow’s 5:01 deadline looms. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth demanded that by that time, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei give the Pentagon unfettered access to the Claude AI model, or risk being blacklisted as a “supply chain risk,” as well as possibly lose control of Claude if the Trump administration invokes the Defense Production Act. Friction emerged after it was reported that Claude was used by the U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, during which 83 people were purportedly killed. Because Anthropic’s usage policy (as of September 2025) said Claude could not be used for surveillance, the development of weapons or inciting violence, Hegseth is labeling it as “woke AI,” which in his eyes are AI systems with ideological restrictions. As of two days ago, the usage policy seems to have been updated to remove some of that wording. The situation draws into view the conundrum AI leaders involved in government contracts have if discretion about “lawful uses” and how their AI models are used is left solely to the government. In this case, Amodei stands to lose a $200 million contract, and a lot more, if he doesn’t capitulate, as have his rivals, OpenAI, Google, xAI, all of which have government contracts. RCRTech has reached out to each for comment, and will update accordingly.
Interestingly, Alan Rozenshtain’s Lawfare article yesterday seemed to address the Defense Production Act threat. The questions are whether the “The the Defense Protection Act can or cannot compel development of a product that a firm does not make, and whether contract terms can and will be renegotiated.
Susana Schwartz
Technology Editor
RCRTech
AI Infrastructure Top Stories
Dept. of War vs. Anthropic: The Pentagon threatened to blacklist Anthropic if CEO Dario Amodei refuses to give the Dept. of War unfettered access to Claude. Amodei doesn’t want Claude used for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance.
Reuse of AI GPUs?: Buying up old GPUs for AI might be the way to go for some smaller AI outfits, as A100 and V100 are still legitimately capable across a broad range of AI workloads, even as the AI processing landscape rapidly reshapes.
AI drives CoreSite leases: American Tower Corporation says AI is a major new growth engine for its data center subsidiary CoreSite, with CEO Steven Vondran telling investors AI-related workloads are the fastest-growing leasing segment.
AI Today: What You Need to Know
Big Tech going to White House: Executives from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle, and OpenAI will meet at the White House next week to sign a pledge to supply their own power for their data centers.
Vertiv physics-driven design: Vertiv aims to industrialize AI deployment with a unified, full-stack digital infrastructure it says reduces on-site deployment complexity and accelerates schedule certainty amid tightening construction constraints.
Citigroup AI focus: Citigroup has assembled a banking team focused on AI infrastructure, with hopes to bankroll $3 Trillion in AI Infrastructure buildouts. The team made its first strategic investment in Japan in Tokyo-based Sakana AI.
Nvidia exit from Arm: Nvidia has fully exited its shareholder position in Arm Holdings, ending an equity relationship that started with an unsuccessful bid to acquire Arm. It does have remaining long-term licensing agreements with Arm.
Elektros report says batteries essential: In its 2026 Industry Outlook Report, Electros finds Lithium-ion batteries will be essential for Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems — providing instant backup power and preventing data loss.
Cogent converts Sprint sites: Cogent has completed the conversion of Sprint switch sites into data centers, and is looking to sell its facilities. The company has 187 Cogent DCs and Edge DCs totaling 2.1+ million sq. ft. and 213 MW.
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