Governor Gavin Newsom announced on June 29, 2026 a first-of-its-kind partnership giving California state agencies and local governments access to Anthropic's Claude AI assistant at roughly a 50% discount, bundled with free workforce training and technical support from Anthropic engineers.
The DMV plans to use Claude to cut wait times, while the Department of Healthcare Services will lean on it to support the state's Medicaid program. Claude becomes the first AI tool offered statewide through California's new Statewide Information Technology Shared Services (SITeS) portal, covering every state agency plus cities and counties that opt in.
Newsom framed the deal as a contrast to Washington's approach: "AI should not replace the human work of government; it should help our workers move faster, solve problems more effectively, and deliver better results for Californians." The agreement lands months after the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a "supply-chain risk" and steered a major contract to OpenAI instead.