Anthropic signs first news licensing deal with AP: report

Anthropic has signed its first content and data licensing deal with a digital news publisher, the Associated Press, and closed it just before the US midterm elections, Adweek reported on Wednesday, November 4, citing two people familiar with the matter. Adweek said Claude users who asked for the latest polling data on election night saw "up-the-minute information, provided by and attributed to the Associated Press."adweek.com

Neither side disclosed the deal's financial terms or how long it lasts. Anthropic did not respond to Adweek's request for comment, and the AP did not comment on the record, according to the report. The Verge also covered the deal, crediting Adweek's reporting.theverge.com+1

A shift in strategy

The deal is a change of direction for Anthropic. Adweek's Mark Stenberg wrote that until Tuesday, the company had no content licensing deal with any digital publisher. Its main rival, OpenAI, has more than a dozen, with partners such as Axel Springer, News Corp ↗ 4.15% and The Atlantic. Stenberg wrote that media executives told him in August that Anthropic believed its use of publisher content was legal under fair use. They said it had shown no plans to sign partnerships.

Adweek suggested a practical reason for the change. Many premium publishers block AI crawlers, which left Claude relying mostly on lower-credibility websites. Those sites, Stenberg wrote, cannot tell a user who won a Senate race 10 minutes ago. He called the publishers' blocking a "digital embargo" meant to push AI companies into licensing talks. He said the tactic worked "in this limited instance," and that Anthropic would likely use the experiment to decide whether to sign more deals.adweek.com

Election night and the IPO

In the run-up to Election Day, Anthropic said it had added tools to give people reliable voting information inside Claude, including a partnership with the nonprofit Democracy Works, KIRO 7 reported. OpenAI said ChatGPT would use the AP for race calls.kiro7.com

The timing also lines up with Anthropic's plans to go public. The company's updated IPO filing on November 2 showed $17 billion in quarterly revenue and a $23.3 billion quarterly net loss, ahead of a market debut expected later this month.abcnews.com

The deal also comes as Anthropic faces publisher lawsuits. On October 21, Postmedia, Torstar, The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press filed a copyright suit claiming Anthropic built Claude "without obtaining a valid licence from any of the news media companies."pressgazette.co.uk

Adweek noted that the AP is an unusual partner. Most of its revenue already comes from licensing and wire deals, and it was the first publisher to sign licensing agreements with both Google and OpenAI. That leaves open whether Anthropic's first deal marks a lasting change or a one-time test, a question Stenberg left unresolved.