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Claude’s AI company Anthropic, which is also at odds with the Trump administration, announced a $200 million partnership with billionaire Bill Gates’ Gates Foundation to develop AI tools for use in health, education and agriculture.
Anthropic and the Gates Foundation have entered into a $200 million partnership. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto, Getty Images)
NurPhoto (from Getty Images)
important facts
The Gates Foundation announced the $200 million deal in a release Thursday, saying the partnership aims to increase equity in AI development for “health care workers, teachers, policy makers, and farmers in low- and middle-income countries and underserved communities.”
The partnership will be funded over four years and will focus on three areas: health, education and agriculture, according to the announcement.
This medical investment is aimed at developing AI technologies to support the development of vaccines and other innovations, including the use of Claude to develop treatments for diseases such as polio, HPV, and pre-eclampsia.
In education, the partnership will work on AI models to improve student performance in the United States, sub-Saharan Africa, and India, including AI-powered apps to support literacy and other AI-powered tools for curriculum design and university advising.
Anthropic and the Gates Foundation said the partnership includes agriculture-specific improvements to Claude that will provide farmers with “more personalized and timely guidance on planting decisions.”
Gates Foundation grants and program design will account for half of the financial commitment, with the other half coming from spending credits for Anthropic’s technical staff and Claude, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources.
Main background
The partnership between Anthropic and the Gates Foundation comes four months after Anthropic’s AI rival OpenAI signed a deal worth $50 million with the Gates Foundation and the two companies announced a partnership called Horizon 1000, which pledges “finance, technology and technical support” to 1,000 medical clinics in African countries by 2028. Microsoft, which Gates founded, and OpenAI have been partners for years, but the companies announced a revamped partnership in April, saying: OpenAI’s revenue distribution to Microsoft will be subject to a “total cap.”
tangent
Antropic has been sparring with the Trump administration in recent months. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a blog post in February that he opposes the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic technology to power domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The next day, President Trump slammed Anthropic in a post on Truth Social as a “woke company of the radical left” and ordered federal agencies to stop using the company’s technology. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he was designating Anthropic as a “supply chain risk to national security,” and Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon in March, calling the move “unprecedented.” OpenAI entered into a deal with the Pentagon amid the Anthropic drama, saying its deal with the Pentagon has “more guardrails” than the Anthropic deal, including provisions prohibiting the use of its technology to power domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. Earlier this month, Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emile Michael said that while Anthropic is still considered a national security risk, its advanced Mythos technology is “another national security moment and we need to make sure we harden our network.” In late April, Politico reported that the administration was trying to reach a “ceasefire” with Anthropic, citing six anonymous tech lobbyists and policy experts, two of whom have ties to the White House.
Read more
Gates and OpenAI partner to advance AI health in African countries (Reuters)
OpenAI restructures partnership with Microsoft, caps revenue sharing payments (CNBC)
Trump picked a fight with Anthropic. Now the government is backing away. (POLITICO)
