Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Anthropic have reached an agreement that allows California state agencies and local governments to access Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot at a discounted price. The package also includes training and support from Anthropic for state employees.
According to a press release from the Governor’s office, Claude will assist state workers with drafting documents and analyzing information. "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 regarding the agreement.
The deal follows Newsom’s March executive order intended to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence to make government more efficient while maintaining stronger safety standards. When announcing that order, Newsom 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."
California’s agreement stands in contrast to recent tensions between Anthropic and the federal government. Earlier this year Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense clashed over a proposed contract that would have allowed the agency to deploy Claude for any lawful use. Anthropic sought explicit safeguards to prevent its technology from being used to surveil Americans or to enable autonomous weapons without human oversight. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected those protections, and the Department ultimately signed a deal with OpenAI instead.
The federal government also designated Anthropic as a "supply-chain risk," a label that has prevented the company from working with other Pentagon contractors. By contrast, California’s Chief Information Officer and Department of Technology director Chris Given told POLITICO that the supply‑chain risk designation "just didn’t come up" during negotiations for the Anthropic contract.
The state press release did not disclose specific financial terms or the exact size of the discount. Nonetheless, the move reflects efforts by public-sector actors to reduce the high costs of enterprise AI subscriptions while introducing new tools in a supported, regulated way.
