Startups Can’t Take on Big Tech? Tell That to Perplexity

When $18B dares to buy $50B’s crown jewel.

OpenAI thought they had the federal AI market cornered with their $1 per year ChatGPT Enterprise offer to the executive branch.

A week later, Anthropic said, “Why stop there?” — and dropped Claude into all three U.S. government branches for the same $1 price tag.

Here’s why this matters:

Broader reach – Executive, legislative, and judiciary branches all get access.
Higher security – FedRAMP High certified for sensitive workloads.
More flexibility – Multicloud access via AWS, Google Cloud, and Palantir (not just Azure).

From accelerating research at Lawrence Livermore National Lab to breaking language barriers in D.C.’s public health services, Claude is positioning itself as more than a chatbot — it’s becoming government-ready infrastructure.

And in a market where Azure has long been the default, Anthropic is betting that choice, security, and speed will be its winning hand.

The question isn’t if government AI adoption will accelerate — it’s who will own the relationship when it does.

If you sell into the public sector, start planning your integrations now. The $1 window won’t stay open forever.