Microsoft announced today, it will provide free Copilot access to US federal workers as part of a broader push to get government agencies hooked on AI tools. The General Services Administration confirmed Microsoft is offering discounts on cloud services alongside the Copilot deal.

This is a massive play by Microsoft to embed AI tools directly into government workflows. Once federal workers start relying on Copilot for daily tasks, it becomes much harder for agencies to switch to competitors.

Strategic implications:

• Government workers become trained on Microsoft’s AI ecosystem
• Creates vendor lock-in for future AI contracts
• Gives Microsoft inside track on enterprise AI adoption patterns
• Potentially influences how AI tools get regulated

The move comes as the US government is pushing departments across the executive branch to sign deals with tech companies for AI capabilities. Microsoft is clearly trying to win this race early.

Smart move—get the government addicted to your AI tools while they’re still figuring out what they need, then charge premium prices once they can’t live without them.

The US government has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) authorization to ship key equipment to its main China facility, TSMC announced today. This is a significant escalation in the ongoing US-China chip war.

TSMC is the world’s largest contract chipmaker, producing processors for Apple, Nvidia, and virtually every major tech company. Their China facility has been operating under special authorization, but that just got yanked.

What this means:

• TSMC’s China operations could face major disruptions
• Global chip supply chains might see ripple effects
• Apple and other companies could face production delays
• China’s push for semiconductor self-reliance gets more urgent

The timing is particularly notable—this comes as China has been investing heavily in domestic chip production and Alibaba is reportedly developing new AI chips to reduce dependence on US technology.

This move signals the Biden administration is tightening tech export controls even further, potentially affecting everything from smartphones to AI development.

Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude AI, just closed a monster $13 billion funding round led by ICONIQ Growth, bringing their post-money valuation to a staggering $183 billion. To put that in perspective, that’s more than most countries’ entire GDP.

This makes Anthropic one of the most valuable AI companies in the world, right behind OpenAI’s reported $200+ billion valuation. The funding comes at a time when AI companies are burning through cash faster than ever to train increasingly powerful models.

What makes this particularly interesting is Anthropic’s positioning as the “safety-first” AI company. While competitors rush to ship features, Anthropic has been more methodical about AI alignment and responsible development. Apparently, investors are betting big that this approach will pay off long-term.

The timing also suggests Anthropic is gearing up for something major—possibly GPT-5 competition or expanding into enterprise markets where their safety focus could be a huge selling point.