I just saw an interesting news story about Anthropic's lobbying efforts in Washington. It turns out they recently hired Ballard Partners, a large lobbying firm with ties to the Trump circle, and this hiring happened just four days after the U.S. military informed them of supply chain risks.

What makes this story intriguing is the breaking point in negotiations. Both sides have completely different perspectives. The military wants to fully utilize Anthropic's AI technology for military purposes, but Anthropic does not want their tools to be used in fully autonomous weapons systems or for surveillance of American citizens. They see this as a critical issue related to compliance and AML oversight concerning the use of technology.

An interesting figure is that Anthropic's lobbying expenses increased by over 330%, reaching $3.1 million in 2025, while OpenAI's increased by only about 70%. This indicates that Anthropic is playing a serious policy game. Lobbying related to AI in the fourth quarter of 2025 reached $37.2 million, up 38% compared to the previous year.

What happened is that Ballard Partners is the sixth external lobbying firm hired by Anthropic since November of last year. They are building a fairly extensive lobbying network. Not long ago, Anthropic also established its own research institute, appointed Sarah Heck as head of public policy, and registered a federal political committee. All of this suggests they are preparing for the policy battles that will likely emerge in the future.