OpenAI and Anthropic increased their federal lobbying spending to record levels in the second quarter of 2026 as the artificial intelligence industry poured millions into influencing Washington ahead of the midterm elections and ahead of their highly anticipated IPOs.

Together, the two leading AI developers spent $3.17 million during the quarter, up 23% from the first three months of the year, according to federal lobbying disclosures.

Anthropic spent $1.97 million from April through June, up 26% from the first quarter. OpenAI spent $1.2 million, an increase of nearly 18%. The companies reported lobbying on issues including cybersecurity, copyright, cloud computing and defense procurement.

Monitoring lobbying spending, which companies must report quarterly to Congress, is a way to gauge which companies and industries are most active in influencing the federal government. Companies with interests in shaping legislation or regulation often ramp up their spending.

Established technology and defense companies still spend far more overall, but OpenAI and Anthropic are narrowing the gap with some of Washington’s biggest corporate lobbying operations.

For example, Anthropic spent more on lobbying than Nvidia during the quarter and nearly matched Oracle’s $2 million total. OpenAI came within $50,000 of Nvidia, which spent $1.25 million.

Both AI companies also sharply increased their spending from the second quarter of last year: Anthropic’s more than doubled, while OpenAI’s nearly doubled.

A CNBC analysis of five “Magnificent 7” tech companies — Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia and Tesla — found they spent a combined $21.25 million on federal lobbying during the second quarter, essentially unchanged from $21.27 million in the first quarter.

Meta remained the largest spender in the bunch in the second quarter at $5.99 million, though its lobbying expenditures fell 15% from the first quarter this year. Amazon’s spending was nearly unchanged at $4.36 million.

Google and Microsoft moved in the opposite direction. Google increased its spending 25% from last quarter to $3.57 million, while Microsoft raised its total nearly 13% to $2.69 million.

Those companies collectively boosted their lobbying spending 7.7 percent compared with the second quarter of 2025 as tech has been in the spotlight on Capitol Hill. They reported lobbying in the most recent quarter on issues including trade, China, taxes and export controls.

Major defense contractors, another sector that like tech is a habitual big spender, reduced their combined spending compared with the previous quarter.

The eight largest U.S.-based publicly traded defense contractors, ranked by fiscal 2024 Defense Department contract obligations in the latest General Services Administration’s SAM.gov Top 100 Contractors…

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday denied Anthropic’s request to temporarily block the Department of Defense’s blacklisting of the artificial intelligence company as a lawsuit challenging that sanction plays out.

The ruling comes after a judge in San Francisco federal court late last month, in a separate but related case, granted Anthropic a preliminary injunction that bars the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on the use of its Claude model.

“In our view, the equitable balance here cuts in favor of the government,” the appeals court said in its decision. “On one side is a relatively contained risk of financial harm to a single private company. On the other side is judicial management of how, and through whom, the Department of War secures vital AI technology during an active military conflict. For that reason, we deny Anthropic’s motion for a stay pending review on the merits.”

With the split decisions by the two courts, Anthropic is excluded from DOD contracts but is able to continue working with other government agencies while litigation plays out. Defense contractors will be prohibited from using Claude in their work with the agency, but they can use it for other cases.

The DOD declared Anthropic a supply chain risk in early March, meaning that use of the company’s technology purportedly threatens U.S. national security. The label requires defense contractors to certify that they don’t use Anthropic’s Claude AI models in their work with the military.

Anthropic had asked the appeals court to review the Pentagon’s determination and argued that it’s a form of retaliation that’s unconstitutional, arbitrary, capricious and not in accord with procedures required by law, according to a filing. 

In the ruling on Wednesday, the court acknowledged that Anthropic “will likely suffer some degree of irreparable harm absent a stay,” but that the company’s interests “seem primarily financial in nature.” While the company claimed the DOD was standing in the way of its right to free speech, “Anthropic does not show that its speech has been chilled during the pendency of this litigation,” the order said.

Because of the harm Anthropic is likely to suffer, the appeals court said “substantial expedition is warranted.”

An Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement after the ruling that the company is “grateful the court recognized these issues need to be resolved quickly” and that it’s “confident the courts will ultimately agree that these supply chain designations were unlawful.”

“While this case was necessary to protect Anthropic, our customers, and our partners, our focus remains on working productively with the government to ensure all Americans benefit from safe, reliable AI,” Anthropic said.

The…

The Iran war is redefining modern combat for the U.S. and driving demand for lower-cost tech.

It’s the exact situation Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned against a few months ago.

“We cannot afford to shoot down cheap drones with $2 million missiles,” Hegseth said in December. “And we ourselves must be able to field large quantities of capable attack drones.”

Two days into the war, the U.S. used up a reported $5.6 billion in munitions. Meanwhile, Iran has wreaked havoc on military bases, tourist centers and data centers used by America’s largest tech giants with swarms of low-cost Shahed drones that cost between $20,000 and $50,000, according to public estimates.

This is the moment defense tech and Silicon Valley have been waiting for. 

For years, defense tech has fought to prove itself in Washington and grab a chunk of the ballooning Pentagon budget snatched up by defense primes like Lockheed Martin, RTX and Northrop Grumman.

The war, coupled with President Donald Trump‘s military reindustrialization efforts, could offer that long-awaited catalyst.

“The world is more dangerous,” said Mike Brown, partner at Shield Capital. “Technologies that were on the drawing board a decade ago have now proven themselves on the battlefield.”

The U.S. has deployed its own version of the Shahed in Iran called the Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System, or LUCAS. The drone, built by Arizona-based SpektreWorks, costs about $35,000 per unit according to industry estimates.

The Department of Defense is also reportedly in the market to buy more.

Tara Murphy Dougherty, CEO of defense software startup Govini, said LUCAS is one of the only major new systems emerging in the Iran war, but production is modest. Most U.S. air capabilities in Iran have been with traditional fighter jets and bombers.

In counter-drone tech, Aerovironment this week announced the Locust X3 laser system, which the company claims will cost under $5 a shot. Contractors Lockheed Martin, RTX and Leidos also offer solutions.

Taser maker Axon entered the sector in 2024 with its Dedrone acquisition. Startups Anduril and Epirus are also scaling counter-drone warfare capabilities.

Despite their real-world applications, these tools accounted for only $4.7 billion of the fiscal 2026 budget. That’s according to data from Obviant, an intelligence startup that focuses on defense acquisition, contracting and budgeting data. 

“America was built on competition, so let’s be competitive,” said Brett Velicovich, co-founder of Powerus, a drone company backed by Trump’s sons. “Let the companies that have the best technology win, because it’s only beneficial to our country.”

Major defense tech winners so far include Oculus-creator Palmer Luckey’s Anduril and software AI company Palantir. Both recently signed multibillion-dollar-ceiling contracts with the Pentagon.

Palantir’s tools are already deeply ingrained in the DOD, and CEO Alex Karp alluded to the fact that…

Republicans on Wednesday balked at a Democratic counteroffer to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, as lawmakers and the White House scramble to strike a deal before a scheduled two-week recess begins on Friday ahead of a busy U.S. travel week for spring breaks and the Easter holiday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Wednesday there was “no point” in Republicans issuing another response to Democrats’ counter and said the Senate would vote later that day on the GOP proposal unveiled earlier this week.

“It’s not even close to being real,” Thune said of the counteroffer. “They know better. They’re asking for things that have already been turned down. So it just seems like they’re going in circles, spinning, spinning.”

The White House criticized Democrats for their role in the negotiations.

“It’s laughable that Democrats are now demanding more reforms to an agency they still refuse to fund,” a White House official via email on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This latest stunt from the Democrats proves they are not interested in a serious conversation and they don’t care they their shutdown is hurting Americans.”

The back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats means a potential deal before the weekend is far from certain. Optimism at the start of the week began to evaporate by Wednesday, with airport security lines long and lawmakers seemingly at an impasse.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday morning from the Senate floor that Democrats were looking for a solution. He called a recent offer from Republicans “bad faith” and announced a counter.

“Our offer is a reasonable, good faith proposal that contains some of the very same asks Democrats have been talking about now for months,” Schumer said.

Schumer did not list out the specific points of his proposal, but Democrats have for months sought changes to the immigration enforcement practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Those changes include a requirement for judicial warrants for federal agents to enter private property and banning the use of masks.

“We have now given Republicans our response, and it’s a serious offer. And time is of the essence I’d say to my Republican colleagues,” Schumer said. “The Easter holiday is coming, families are going on spring break. TSA lines are literally stretching out the door of airports.”

The counter comes after Senate Republicans and the White House unveiled a proposal earlier this week to fund much of the agency while withholding money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations.

Democrats bristled at the proposal because it did not include any of the ICE changes they have demanded. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, a moderate who caucuses with Democrats and who has voted with Republicans on government funding, said he was still a “no” on Wednesday. King called the GOP proposal “illusory,” because it would still fund ICE’s…

Senate Republicans and the White House appear near to a deal to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security and end the partial government shutdown as the shutdown’s second month leads to worsening airport delays.

Talks are still underway, but “this deal seems to be acceptable,” a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity said Tuesday. President Donald Trump has said he wants to not only fund DHS but include other changes such as prohibitions on transgender care and a voter-ID measure.

Democrats, however, say they’re not satisfied with the Republicans’ proposal.

At a swearing-in ceremony for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday, Trump said he would “take a good hard look” at the compromise funding proposal.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said at a press conference Tuesday that “Democrats have in front of them” the legislative text of a proposal to reopen DHS.

“The time to end this is now,” Thune said. “It is essentially what the Democrats have been asking for.”

The agreement would include funding for all of DHS except for a portion of its Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., part of a group of Republicans who met with Trump at the White House on Monday night, said it would amount to funding 94% of the agency.

Democrats so far have not given their blessing.

“Just as Democrats have been very clear, we will immediately fund TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and CISA while talks continue on ICE and Border Patrol, we’ve also made very clear that if we are talking about funding any part of ICE or CBP, we absolutely must take some key steps to rein them in,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday at a press conference, where she also described the talks with the White House as “productive.”

If a compromise is reached, it would bring to a close the shutdown that began Feb. 14 ahead of busy travel weeks for Easter and school spring breaks. The shutdown has caused DHS employees to miss pay, with some not going to work and others working without pay. Repeated government shutdowns — most recently last fall — have ended after flight disruptions due to staffing shortages of essential government employees who weren’t receiving regular paychecks.

The deal would also include a plan for Republicans to pursue a party-line bill that could make up that ICE funding and include a version of the SAVE America Act, the Trump-backed elections bill that would implement national voter-ID mandates and require proof of citizenship to register, Graham said. It would not include some of the ICE reforms Democrats have been demanding, like requiring judicial warrants for agents to enter private…

The Senate is expected to vote Monday night on Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

The Oklahoma Republican was chosen by President Donald Trump earlier this month to replace Kristi Noem, who attracted a flurry of scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans alike for her leadership of the department and her use of taxpayer dollars.

“My goal in six months is that we’re not the lead story every single day. My goal is for people to understand we’re out there, we’re protecting them and we’re working with them,” Mullin said last week at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Mullin cleared a procedural hurdle Sunday with the support of two Democrats — Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico — and is expected to be approved by his Senate colleagues.

If approved, Mullin would take over a DHS that’s shut down as Democrats continue to withhold support for a funding package over concerns about immigration enforcement policies. Trump, meanwhile, is trying to jam through an unrelated voter-ID bill and has told Republicans to hold off on a DHS funding deal with Democrats until the SAVE America Act is passed.

Funding lapsed for the agency in February, the month after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis killed two U.S. citizens during an enforcement surge.

Mullin is generally well-regarded by his Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and at his confirmation hearing he signaled he was open to shifting the direction of the agency.

He told the panel he would require immigration agents to obtain judicial warrants to enter private property and said he would like to see ICE become a “transport more than the front line” in immigration enforcement.

“This is going to surprise some people, but I consider Markwayne Mullin a friend. We have a very honest and constructive working relationship,” Heinrich said in a statement on Sunday after supporting Mullin in a procedural vote.

“I have also seen firsthand that Markwayne is not someone who can simply be bullied into changing his views, and I look forward to having a secretary who doesn’t take their orders from Stephen Miller,” Heinrich continued, referring to the White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor, whom Democrats say called the shots during Noem’s tenure.

Despite the cross-party camaraderie, many Democrats on the Senate panel pressed Mullin on his close ties to Trump, his hardline stances on immigration and a trip he said he took abroad while a member of the House that he said was “classified.”

Mullin got in a spat with the committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul,…

Congressional Democrats sent a new counteroffer to the White House to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, a person familiar with the negotiations told CNBC.

DHS has been shut down since Feb. 14. The shutdown comes as Democrats demand changes to how federal immigration enforcement operates in exchange for releasing the funding after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by DHS officers in Minneapolis. The Democrats and President Donald Trump‘s White House have been trading proposals for over a month but have not yet clinched a deal.

The latest Democratic counteroffer was sent late last night, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations. The person declined to detail what’s in the Democrats’ latest volley.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, told CNBC the White House has received the counteroffer and is reviewing it. The official also did not offer any details included in the Democrats’ latest proposal.

The shutdown at DHS has been less disruptive than last year’s record-long broader government shutdown. Much of DHS is considered essential, meaning employees are continuing to work without pay.

But the effects of the funding lapse are being seen in airports, where Transportation Security Administration agents are quitting or calling out rather than working without pay. They and other DHS employees missed their first full paychecks last week. The shortage of agents has caused massive pileups at security checkpoints.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC on Thursday that artificial intelligence is giving the U.S. and its allies an edge in the escalating conflict in Iran and across the Middle East.

“What makes America special right now is our lethal capacities, our ability to fight war,” Karp said at Palantir’s AIPcon 9 in Maryland. He added that another major advantage is that “the AI revolution is uniquely American.”

Karp alluded to his company’s ability to link combat data between the U.S. and Middle East partners that were hit by Iranian airstrikes.

“If you were attacked and you needed to coordinate, you would have to have a coordinating function. There’s only one product that can actually do that for security,” Karp said, referencing Palantir’s platform.

Palantir’s Project Maven is a real-time AI surveillance capability that leverages satellite imagery. The platform was used with Anthropic’s Claude in the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Karp declined to comment on whether Maven was used to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint U.S.-Israel military operation two weeks ago.

“I have read that Palantir’s Project Maven is the core backbone of that,” he said, speaking generally about U.S. involvement in the Middle East. “And then I’ve also read that all the allies, Arab and non-Arab in the Middle East, may or may not be users of our platform as well, and that’s expanding rapidly.”

Experts and executives in the industry say AI is pushing the conflict to a new frontier. That was evident when Iran bombed three Amazon data centers in the Middle East last week.

U.S. data centers are increasingly seen as national security assets, hosting critical digital infrastructure used by governments and big companies.

“They’re evil, they’re not stupid,” Karp said. “Look who’s on the list, look who’s not. We’re in the middle of war. You would expect it to be a list of hardcore military companies. They are interested in the things they can’t produce.”

While Palantir may be best known for its defense technology, the company’s commercial business is booming. U.S. commercial revenue jumped 137% in the fourth quarter to $507 million.

Palantir shares are up 12% so far this month, while the Nasdaq is down about 1.6%.

WATCH: Palantir’s Q4 earnings beat

Defense Department CTO Emil Michael on Thursday said Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence models would “pollute” the agency’s supply chain because they have “a different policy preference” that is baked in.

“We can’t have a company that has a different policy preference that is baked into the model through its constitution, its soul, its policy preferences, pollute the supply chain so our warfighters are getting ineffective weapons, ineffective body armor, ineffective protection,” Michael told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “That’s really where the supply chain risk designation came from.”

Anthropic is the first American company to publicly be labeled a supply chain risk, an extraordinary move that’s historically been reserved for foreign adversaries. The designation will require defense contractors and vendors to certify that they don’t use Claude in their work with the Pentagon.

Michael’s comments on Thursday are the clearest explanation the DOD has offered about why it believes Anthropic is a supply chain risk. The agency sent an official letter to notify the company about the designation earlier this month, but the letter did not outline what risk Claude poses to national security. 

Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday, calling the government’s actions “unprecedented and unlawful.” Anthropic said in a filing that the company was being harmed “irreparably,” and that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts are in jeopardy.

“This is not meant to be punitive,” Michael said Thursday.

He added that Anthropic has a “huge commercial business,” and that a “tiny fraction” comes from the U.S. government. Michael also dismissed Anthropic’s claim that the government has actively reached out to companies and told them them not to use Anthropic, calling the notion “rumors.”

“The Department of War is not reaching out to companies to tell them what to do, so long as it’s not in our supply chain,” he said.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of researchers and executives who defected from OpenAI. The company is best known for its family of Claude models, and it’s had early success selling into large enterprises, including the DOD.

The startup has drafted and published a “constitution” that it uses to help train its mainline, general-access Claude models. Anthropic said the constitution plays a “crucial role” in this process, and that its content “directly shapes Claude’s behavior,” according to its website.

Anthropic shared the most recent version of Claude’s constitution in January.

“In it, we explain what we think it means for Claude to be helpful while remaining broadly safe, ethical, and compliant with our guidelines,” Anthropic said in a blog post. “The constitution gives Claude information about its situation and offers advice for how to deal with difficult situations and tradeoffs, like balancing honesty with compassion and the protection of sensitive information.”

Even after Anthropic was blacklisted, the company’s models have…

Palantir is still using Anthropic’s Claude as the artificial intelligence startup’s clash with the Pentagon plays out, CEO Alex Karp told CNBC Thursday.

“The Department of War is planning to phase out Anthropic; currently, it’s not phased out,” Karp told CNBC’s Seema Mody at Palantir’s AIPcon 9 in Maryland. “Our products are integrated with Anthropic, and in the future, it will probably be integrated with other large language models.”

The Department of Defense officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk last week, but is still using Claude models to support the war in Iran, as CNBC previously reported.

Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday to reverse the supply chain risk designation and is seeking a stay on the DOD action.

This is the first time that Palantir has commented since the Pentagon’s designation. Anthropic and Palantir partnered with Amazon Web Services to support the DOD in 2024.

Other defense tech companies have told employees to stop using Claude as the clash plays out, including Lockheed Martin.

Defense Department Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael told CNBC Thursday that it would take time for the government to transition away from Anthropic’s models.

“You can’t just rip out a system that’s deeply embedded overnight,” Michael told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

At the end of February, President Donald Trump lashed out at Anthropic in a post on Truth Social, calling its staff “leftwing nut jobs.” In the post, Trump said federal agencies will have a six-month period to phase out the company’s products.

An internal Pentagon memo sent by Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies last week said use of Anthropic’s tools may continue beyond the six-month period if deemed critical to national security.

The memo, first reported Tuesday by CBS News, told senior leadership that exemptions will be considered for “mission-critical activities,” in rare circumstances where “no viable alternative exists.”

“If we’re in a conflict six months from now and we have a sensitive operation that we need to continue, obviously, we’re going to make exceptions so we don’t put current operations at risk,” Michael said Thursday. “But otherwise, six months is the plan.”