Defense contracting makes you rich and lazy. In the long run it is rare to see companies get sucked into defense contracting and stay relevant/on the cutting edge. We look at fighters and warships and think WOW! But the reality is that they are pretty far behind where they would actually be if there was a civilian purpose to them that mattered.

Unfortunately their models suck, though. The difference between the best Grok model and Opus 4.6 is night and day, and not only for coding, but entirely across-the-board.

What does xAI's future as a defense contractor AI company look like after the 2028 presidential election?

I don’t know what will happen, but it still could work out to benefit Anthropic. I believe the public sentiment is OVERWHELMINGLY with Anthropic on this one. Both their stance and standing up to Trump bullies.