Palantir, Anthropic, Google deepen ties on government AI use with Claude partnership

Palantir and Anthropic have a new partnership focused on introducing Claude to the federal government, an expansion of the companies’ preexisting relationship centered on AI in the public sector. 

In a press release announcing the collaboration Thursday, the companies revealed that they are now working together through FedStart, a Palantir program meant to aid compliance with FedRAMP. Google Cloud is also a major partner. 

As they increasingly attempt to sell their technology to the federal government, AI companies are currently figuring out how best to approach FedRAMP, FedScoop previously reported. The General Services Administration-housed program oversees security standards and benchmarks, and is focused on reducing the need for multiple agencies to conduct redundant reviews of cloud technology. 

FedRAMP is facing a major rehaul, but generally, AI companies cannot offer their software to the government without authorizing their technology through the program — or finding a cloud provider that’s already authorized.

“It really becomes a license to participate,” Jessica Salmoiraghi, senior director for IT modernization and procurement at the Business Software Alliance, a trade group that represents several AI companies, including OpenAI and Cohere, previously told FedScoop. “You have a FedRAMP license and you’re able to go from one agency to another to do software and other cloud-based work.” 

Anthropic has previously indicated it’s interested in pursuing its own FedRAMP authorization, but Thursday’s announcement shows the company is still pursuing the second strategy in the meantime. 

Through FedStart, the companies say that Claude will become available to “millions” of federal workers within months. The program also allows Anthropic to offer Claude at FedRAMP High and DoD Impact Level 5 (IL-5) security standards. Notably, Google Cloud will host the Claude application, the press release stated, indicating that Anthropic is pursuing a multi-cloud strategy. 

“We are excited to support the collaboration between Palantir and Anthropic, leveraging Google Cloud’s FedRAMP High and Impact Level 5 (IL5) accredited commercial cloud infrastructure to deliver a highly scalable and secure environment for the Claude application,” Karen Dahut, CEO of Google Public Sector, said in the release. “We look forward to ensuring that the federal government has access to cutting-edge AI solutions on an enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure without delay.”