Anthropic vs. the Pentagon, the SaaSpocalypse, and why competition is good, actually

Equity

TechCrunch

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two failed to agree on how much control the military should have over its AI models, including its use in autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. As Anthropic’s $200 million contract fell apart, the DoD turned to OpenAI instead, which accepted and then watched ChatGPT uninstalls surge 295%. As the stakes keep rising, the question remains: how much unrestricted access should the military have to an AI model? On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what startups should think about when chasing federal contracts, especially when nobody seems to know what to do with AI in Washington, and more of the week's headlines. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: Paramount’s massive deal with Warner Bros, and the Equity crew’s ideas for what the new HBO Max-Paramount+ hybrid should be called MyFitnessPal's acquisition of Cal AI, the calorie-tracking app built by teenagers Who dropped $1 billion on Pinterest’s AI mission and how the company spent it on share buybacks. (Spoiler: Kirsten has thoughts.) Anduril is raising again at a reported $60 billion valuation Whether companies should brace themselves for the SaaSpocalypse, or if it’s just another chapter of the AI hype cycle Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	presented by Dot Tech Domains, where tech founders find sharp, memorable names for their tech startups.
0:05.8	Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:12.0	Today is Friday, March 6th.
0:14.0	I'm Kirsten Koresak, transportation editor over at TechCrunch, and I'm joined, as always, by our weekend editor Anthony Haugh and senior reporter
0:22.1	Sean O'Kane. I have an important question, which is, what are we going to call Paramount Plus
0:29.0	HBO Max Warner Brothers Discovery? Yeah, it's a tough question. Luckily, it's not our problem. It's above our pay grade. But yeah,
0:41.6	I mean, I'm definitely still just kind of processing this news, even though it is, you know,
0:45.5	more than a week old at this point. But, you know, if you've been listening to equity,
0:49.5	you know, we were talking about Netflix acquiring Warner Brothers, and now Netflix has decided they're
0:55.6	not, they're taking themselves out of the race, and Paramount is acquiring Warner Brothers instead.
1:00.4	Were you guys equally shocked?
1:02.0	Yeah, actually, kind of.
1:03.7	I mean, there's so much consolidation.
1:06.2	I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this.
1:08.8	I feel like we were so focused on Netflix being part of the deal
1:12.0	that I, I guess I had decided that that was going to happen. So I was a little bit surprised,
1:18.5	but really, if I, I shouldn't be, I shouldn't be surprised at all. I was not surprised in the sense
1:24.5	that buying Warner Media is like the sirens call of every media
1:29.5	executive apparently. They know it will lead them to shipwreck and yet none of them can
1:34.3	avoid it for whatever reason. So it was like it, I feel like the Ellisons were always going
1:39.0	to one up what Netflix had on the table and they seemed pretty confident that their
1:43.5	connections to the administration
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TechCrunch, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TechCrunch and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.