Anthropic, the artificial intelligence giant locked in a legal war with the Trump administration over military use of its technology, has signed a formal AI safety pact with the Albanese government.
The memorandum of understanding was signed when chief executive Dario Amodei met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Wednesday. It commits Anthropic to sharing research on emerging model capabilities and risks with Australia’s AI Safety Institute, participating in joint safety evaluations, and collaborating with Australian academic institutions. The agreement mirrors arrangements Anthropic holds with safety institutes in the US, Britain and Japan.
Anthropic, which is valued at $US380 billion ($550 billion), will also share data from its economic index with the federal government to track AI adoption across sectors including natural resources, agriculture, healthcare and financial services, with a focus on implications for workers.
The deal comes as Amodei – who flew into Canberra on Tuesday via chartered jet from San Jose – conducts a blitz of political meetings with Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Industry Minister Tim Ayres and Assistant Technology Minister Andrew Charlton. He is also scheduled to appear at a half-day “Futures Forum” at Parliament House, where the company will demonstrate its AI agents to public servants and government officials.
Anthropic is one of a small number of companies at the frontier of artificial intelligence development, competing directly with OpenAI – maker of ChatGPT – and Google’s DeepMind to build the world’s most advanced AI systems.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, including siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, the company has positioned itself as the safety-focused alternative in an industry increasingly defined by its geopolitical significance and breakneck pace of development. Its flagship product, Claude, has become one of the most widely used AI models globally.
Alongside the MOU, Anthropic announced $3 million in Claude API credits for four Australian research institutions: the Australian National University, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Curtin University. The funding targets clinical genomics, precision medicine, paediatric heart disease research and computing education. The company also launched a dedicated API credit program offering up to $US50,000 for venture-backed deep tech start-ups working in drug discovery, materials science, climate modelling and medical diagnostics.
“Australia’s investment in AI safety makes it a natural partner for responsible AI development,” Amodei said.
“I’m particularly excited by the work Australian research institutions will be doing with Claude to advance disease diagnosis and treatment.”
The visit carries significant commercial and geopolitical weight. Anthropic is locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration after refusing to allow its AI systems to be used in autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance, resulting in the company being designated a supply chain risk by the Pentagon. That designation, currently frozen by the courts, bars US federal agencies and military contractors from using Anthropic’s products. The company has been branded “left-wing nutjobs” by US President Donald Trump.
Anthropic has also confirmed it is exploring data centre infrastructure investment in Australia, though any deal to use local facilities for model training remains constrained by an unresolved deadlock between the government and the AI sector over copyright licensing for training data. Andrew Charlton has said the current system was failing to protect Australian creators, while tech companies say they need to train their systems on local data to ensure AI outputs reflect Australian nuance, vocabulary and concepts to close cultural gaps for customers.
The company has hired three lobbying firms – Anacta Strategies, SEC Newgate and Carolyn Hough’s Policy Australia – ahead of the visit, and is recruiting for a country head and an external affairs lead in Canberra.
Anthropic told a Senate committee last month it would extend its US commitment to cover the full cost of grid upgrades and bring net-new power generation online to any Australian market where it builds infrastructure.
Get news and reviews on technology, gadgets and gaming in our Technology newsletter every Friday. Sign up here.
David Swan is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X or email.