national security3 articles
SpaceX's Quiet Chinese Investors: Military-Linked Backers, Qatari Royals, and a Middleman Who Promised CFO Access
A ProPublica investigation has revealed that a Chinese businessman with ties to military contractors, along with other overseas investors from China, Hong Kong, and Russia, secretly acquired small stakes in SpaceX through a US middleman firm called Tomales Bay Capital between 2018 and 2021. This raises national security concerns given SpaceX's extensive work on sensitive US government contracts, such as building spy satellites for the Pentagon. The revelations are particularly notable as SpaceX recently barred Chinese and Hong Kong investors from its record-breaking IPO, citing "regulatory and compliance risks."
US Government Forces Anthropic to Pull Its Two Most Powerful Models Worldwide Over Foreign National Access Concerns
The US government issued an export control directive ordering Anthropic to block access to its two most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for all foreign nationals, citing national security concerns. Because compliance would be impossible without disabling the models entirely, Anthropic suspended global access to both, just days after rolling out Fable 5 for free to millions of users. Anthropic disputes the justification, stating the government's evidence amounts to a narrow, already-known jailbreak, and argues that applying this standard industry-wide would effectively halt all new frontier model deployments.
Flagged as a Pentagon Supply Chain Risk, Anthropic Is Probably Getting the NSA Contract Anyway
Despite being flagged as a supply chain risk by the Pentagon due to its refusal to allow unrestricted lawful use of its technology, Anthropic will likely continue supplying its Claude-based "Mythos" model to the NSA, with the arrangement personally approved by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Mythos is reportedly the only short-term solution for the NSA's classified networks because it can run on older chips, unlike models from competitors that require Nvidia's latest hardware. A contract being finalized includes a clause preventing the model from processing Americans' data, and the White House intends to use it as a template for future AI agreements.